PlayStation Studios CEO Is Not Forcing Teams to Work on Live Service Games, Shuhei Yoshida Says
According to Shuhei Yoshida, former President of Worldwide Studios at Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst has not mandated that every first-party team create live service games. Despite Sony’s once well-publicized “live service push,” internal studios are not being strong-armed into adopting the model. Instead, as Yoshida detailed in an interview on Sacred Symbols+ (reported by Push Square), some teams have chosen to pursue live service projects because they see value in aligning with a broader company initiative—believing it improves the odds of getting a project approved and supported.
The Last of Us Online Canceled
One notable casualty of Sony’s live service ambitions was The Last of Us Online, a standalone multiplayer project by Naughty Dog. Yoshida revealed that he briefly played a working version and found it promising. However, after consulting with Bungie, the studio behind long-running live service successes like Destiny, Naughty Dog concluded it couldn’t successfully support an ongoing multiplayer title while also producing the upcoming sci-fi single-player project Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
“The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it. But Bungie explained to them what it takes to make live service games, and Naughty Dog realised, ‘Oops, we can’t do that! If we do it, we can’t make Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.’ So, that was a lack of foresight.”
— Shuhei Yoshida
Mixed Results from Sony’s Live Service Push
Despite the hype, none of PlayStation’s first-party studios have delivered a long-term live service success so far:
Concord launched last year but was shut down soon after due to minimal engagement.
A God of War project at Bluepoint Games was canceled.
Helldivers II, a live service-adjacent co-op shooter developed by Arrowhead (which is not owned by Sony), has been a bright spot and is considered a success. However, it remains one of the few victories in the broader Sony live service landscape.
Yoshida’s comments suggest Hermen Hulst and Sony still encourage live service experimentation but do not impose it as a universal directive. Studios appear free to evaluate the viability of such endeavors themselves. As a result, future projects from PlayStation Studios may continue to strike a balance between traditional single-player experiences and select experiments in live service—and fans shouldn’t assume every Sony release will or must pivot to the model.
