Shuhei Yoshida evaluation thread

<--------------------My avatar (him as a TMNT)


He has replied to me on Twitter several times. A+ in my book lol.
 
Wax Free Vanilla said:
He authorized the development and release of a butchered product, he basically killed the ip there and then, not even his salvage job with the digital release of Spec II on PS4 will do anything. It's over!

Yoshida needs to be sent Ken K's way.
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I was under the impression that Gran Turismo 6 was better than Gran Turismo 5 in every way. But I haven't followed the game much, just what I heard from some racing people on podcasts.

Papacheeks said:
So Sony doesn't own the IP's then? Thought ABZU was by the Journey team?
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Lots of people left thatgamecompany in all kinds of direction after Journey. But no, that game is being published by 505 Games, not Sony.

SlugSh0t said:
PSN down AGAIN, never any response from them. Yeah, he aint doing too great imo.
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Not Shuhei. World Wide Studios is not responsible for the general network infrastructure.
 
I think that many people are blinded by his apparently good personality, but where was his good personality when killed Vita and teams like Liverpool?
We are evaluating his work not his fake pr personality.
 
BruiserBear said:
I'm glad to see this thread created, because I, and I think many other people who think about the bigger picture, see this is a topic worth discussing. Sony has so many internal studios, but it feels to me like they just aren't outputting that much, and when they do it's often not to the quality level it should be. Standards change overtime, and sometimes it feels like their studios aren't keeping up.

It's very hard to pin the Sony studios situation on Shuhei alone, as we really have no idea exactly how much support he has, how big the team surrounding him is, etc. but there is no doubt their worldwide studios just aren't outputting games at the quality level you'd expect.

Knack
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Infamous: Second Son
Driveclub

Those are the big PS4 exclusives we've had so far, and quite honestly, I feel like all of them came off as very flawed products. I'd like to directly contrast them to competing products, but I have a feeling I'd be attacked for doing so. Needless to say, I feel like there are competing projects out there that set more ambitious goals, and often execute on a higher level of quality. It's truly disappointing, as I feel like a little help here and there could really turn things around, so I hope they shake things up soon.
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Right, let's see the bigger picture. I quote myself from an old thread:

DevilFox said:
Also, let's see the entire picture.

Japan Studio released Puppeteer, Soul Sacrifice and Rain in 2013, Freedom Wars in 2014, now they're on Bloodborne and something else I don't remember (and TLG, right?)
Quantic Dream released Beyond in 2013, they're now working on PS4.
Naughty Dog released TLOU in 2013, the DLC in February 2014, TLOU:R this summer. Now they're on Uncharted 4.
Poliphony Digital released GT6 at the end of 2013, we all know they're on GT7 for PS4.
Pixelopus, the newest team, released Entiwned this summer.
San Diego released MLB 13 and 14 in 2013 and 2014.
Santa Monica released GoW Ascension in 2013. Now they're on something big (GoW 4?) and they're collaborating for a couple of titles.
Evolution Studio is going to release Driveclub.
Guerrilla Cambridge released Killzone: Mercenary in 2013.
Media Molecule released Tearaway in 2013, they're now on the port for PS4 and probably something else.

Studios that didn't release anything in 2013 (and/or 2012) are the ones that covered the launch window...
Sucker Punch, that released Second Son and the DLC First Light.
Guerrilla Games with Shadow Fall. We know they're now on Horizon.
...together with Knack from Japan Studio and the demo Playroom from London Studio.

From the second party there's a good activity as well, with Resogun (Housemarque) and The Order (Ready at Dawn) as well as others I don't remember.

The team we know nothing about is Bend Studio.

I'd say this is a pretty good output for such a young first party group, compared to the huge one that has Nintendo for obvious historical reasons.
So, what about, I don't know.. give them time? With Vita out of the wa (sorry Vita fans), the resources are going in one single direction, and tha't the PS4 (and Morpheus maybe).
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Resources aren't infinite. If you decide to support your last console, it's obvious that the new one is going to have less games for a while.
Is is good or bad? I say good because if there's one thing I hate is the support for a console dying from one day to another, it feels like a huge middle finger to the fanbase.
 
BruiserBear said:
I'm glad to see this thread created, because I, and I think many other people who think about the bigger picture, see this is a topic worth discussing. Sony has so many internal studios, but it feels to me like they just aren't outputting that much, and when they do it's often not to the quality level it should be. Standards change overtime, and sometimes it feels like their studios aren't keeping up.

It's very hard to pin the Sony studios situation on Shuhei alone, as we really have no idea exactly how much support he has, how big the team surrounding him is, etc. but there is no doubt their worldwide studios just aren't outputting games at the quality level you'd expect.

Knack
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Infamous: Second Son
Driveclub

Those are the big PS4 exclusives we've had so far, and quite honestly, I feel like all of them came off as very flawed products. I'd like to directly contrast them to competing products, but I have a feeling I'd be attacked for doing so./B] Needless to say, I feel like there are competing projects out there that set more ambitious goals, and often execute on a higher level of quality. It's truly disappointing, as I feel like a little help here and there could really turn things around, so I hope they shake things up soon.
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I hope you aren't thinking of MS here because Microsoft Games Studio only released two Xbox One exclusive as of now (Forza 5 and Kinect Sports Rivals), I haven't played them since I don't own a Xbone but I don't think they are better then Sony's.

Nintendo is the only one to have a stellar first party output (they did have a year of advance)
 
Tearaway
Gravity Rush
TLOU
Tomorrow Children
Wild
Journey
Sound Shapes
Resogun
Rime
Puppeteer
Made up his mistake of not publishing Demons souls by giving us Bloodborne
 
Until The Last Guardian comes out I can't say he did a good job. This is the man who chose not to publish Demon's Souls on the west.
 
"four arms would be better than four breasts"?

Well, guess I've found the quote to make SmokyDave hand in his Sony Fan Card.
 
DevilFox said:
Right, let's see the bigger picture. I quote myself from an old thread:



Resources aren't infinite. If you decide to support your last console, it's obvious that the new one is going to have less games for a while.
Is is good or bad? I say good because if there's one thing I hate is the support for a console dying from one day to another, it feels like a huge middle finger to the fanbase.
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Excellent post.
Looking at the full picture also requires looking at 2013.
 
I think he's done a pretty good job, particularly in allowing studios to pursue new IPs. While a couple of his decisions didn't pan out in the long run (Demon's Souls, GT6, DriveClub) he's done a great job of diversifying Sony's first party portfolio and improving communication with fans.
 
Konosuke said:
Until The Last Guardian comes out I can't say he did a good job. This is the man who chose not to publish Demon's Souls on the west.
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He did a good job because he cancelled the ps3 version and startet to develop on PS4
I think this was the right choice
 
benny_a said:
I was under the impression that Gran Turismo 6 was better than Gran Turismo 5 in every way. But I haven't followed the game much, just what I heard from some racing people on podcasts.


Lots of people left thatgamecompany in all kinds of direction after Journey. But no, that game is being published by 505 Games, not Sony.


Not Shuhei. World Wide Studios is not responsible for the general network infrastructure.
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Is the team making Abzu made up of some of the team from Journey? Thought I read it somewhere some of the members from that Studio were working on that game.

Also since you have more info than me, if 505 is publishing it, does it mean it's only timed exclusive?
 
Orochi had vowed to get Shu fired via an online petition. So Shu must be awful I guess.


Personally, I love Shu, seems personable, enjoys games, takes some risks with new IPs, PS4 is selling like crazy.....
 
No one's perfect, and Shuhei doesn't pretend like he is. He's admitted to screw ups like not supporting Demon's Souls, and now look at Bloodborne. The first year of new consoles is almost always rough for first parties (and this year was), but the known titles releasing next year look amazing.

He always comes across as genuine, humble, and often shows how excited he is about what he's doing, evidenced by interviews and GB E3 talks. His openness is also worth mentioning, indulging Kyle Bosman and Adam Boyes in dumb videos, and responding to fans on twitter on a regular basis.
 
Papacheeks said:
Is the team making Abzu made up of some of the team from Journey? Thought I read it somewhere some of the members from that Studio were working on that game.
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Yeah, art director and lead designer from thatgamecompany from Journey are working on the game. Maybe even more, but those are the ones I've read about.

Papacheeks said:
Also since you have more info than me, if 505 is publishing it, does it mean it's only timed exclusive?
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I can only speculate, but in the era of multiplatform development I would always assume that titles will come to all platforms unless they are created by internal teams.
 
Well from a public perspective he does a really good job since we never learn about the negative behind the scenes stuff like for example the reasons behind the closing of studios,the delays of certain projects,the cancellations,loosing key developers and so many other things as well as the (hard) decisions that he has to make on a daily basis.

For example we know that he fucked up with Demon's Souls (a mistake he admitted countless times since then) but on the other hand he's also the man responsible for Bloodborne.

But in general we (the public) only get to know about the very final decisions and never about the missed opportunities (regarding partnerships,greenlighting risky but unique projects etc) or the effort he puts in maintaining certain partnerships and helping developers.

tl;dr He seems a great guy,his public profile is really good but we have a very limited picture of his overall profile. Same goes for Phil Spencer,Satoru Iwata etc.
 
Wtf? How the heck did Shu fail in his position?

Where are the complaints pointing at Shu? May just be me, but I haven't seen many?

For what it's worth, I think Shu is the human side that Sony should continue to feature.
 
Does anyone know exactly when Yoshida was appointed head of WWS? I think that's an important distinguishing factor when trying to consider how successful he's been. Wikipedia does not say and my tools for research are limited at the moment.
 
benny_a said:
Yeah, art director and lead designer from thatgamecompany from Journey are working on the game. Maybe even more, but those are the ones I've read about.


I can only speculate, but in the era of multiplatform development I would always assume that titles will come to all platforms unless they are created by internal teams.
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Thanks for the info :)

And I hope this next year helps reflect SHu's involvement in the upcoming slate of games.
 
Triggerhappytel said:
Does anyone know exactly when Yoshida was appointed head of WWS? I think that's an important distinguishing factor when trying to consider how successful he's been. Wikipedia does not say and my tools for research are limited at the moment.
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May 16th 2008.

Before that, he was in Scott Rohde's position, VP overseeing SCEA WWS like SSM and Naughty Dog.
 
2+2=5 said:
I think that many people are blinded by his apparently good personality, but where was his good personality when killed Vita and teams like Liverpool?
We are evaluating his work not his fake pr personality.
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I think it's related to this interview from last year:

Sony have closed a number of their game development studios these past few years, while supporting certain others in their place. While Wipeout developer Studio Liverpool was closed down in 2012, Uncharted developer Naughty Dog has thrived. While SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive no longer exists, Killzone developer Guerrilla is still around. And those are just a couple of the studios that Sony have closed this generation.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Sony&#8217;s Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida provides some insight as to why this is. The issue, Yoshida says, is that mid-sized console studios are facing challenges across the industry in general. Due to this, Sony have been closing down some of their studios while investing in what they view as their top teams.

&#8220;So we have supported some studios&#8212;Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and Guerilla&#8212;to become able to produce multiple projects at the same time, while we shut down mid-sized studios who were struggling to compete&#8230; that&#8217;s in reaction to the changes of the time,&#8221; Yoshida shares.

Getting consumers to spend $60 is hard, and the only way to do that is by offering bigger titles that far outclass those of the mid-sized titles, Yoshida feels. He goes on emphasize: &#8220;It&#8217;s been a bloodbath of medium-sized games for the last two years&#8230; the market is extremely hard for smaller, mid-sized games these days.&#8221;

Mid-sized studios have a serious question to ask themselves, Yoshida says: &#8220;if you are making a studio, like 40 or 50 people studio, it&#8217;s a really tough age&#8212;whether they try to grow and compete to become triple-A, or if they try to do indie-style small development. It&#8217;s really a good, critical question for many of the mid-sized studios.&#8221;
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They did, indeed, closed the mid sized studios and moved resources to the others.
Shutting down Liverpool was a huge hit for me too. I can only hope they did not forgot about Wipeout :\
 
Ricky_R said:
5pe2gJv.jpg
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lol
 
They're still making TLG and produce games like Journey, Rime, Uncharted and Infamous.

He's not doing too bad :)
 
Likable personality who's truly passionate about games. Has made a few decisions or at least been involved with them that I haven't liked (i.e. closure of Psygnosis), but overall he's still in the positive spectrum in my eyes.
 
Is Shu responsible for the PS3 having great exclusives during the very last years of the last gen? If so, that's a thumbs up for supporting your console until the end.
2015 looks to be awesome as well.

2014 would've been good but sadly the only thing Sony put out were non-games (indies) and unacceptable, critically non-approved games (yellow score on metacritic). Lost a friend for recommending a game that wasn't met with almost all positive reviews once.
 
2+2=5 said:
I think that many people are blinded by his apparently good personality, but where was his good personality when killed Vita and teams like Liverpool?
We are evaluating his work not his fake pr personality.
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure how he falls short in that regard either, though. Sony always had good exclusives, but in the PS2 era it relied more on third-party titles. In the space of a generation, he turned PS3's internal output into an absolute powerhouse, and while there are plenty of people eager to write the company off right now, I'd be very surprised if it doesn't hit fifth gear next year.

Liverpool was obviously a great team, but it didn't make many games, and the ones it did weren't huge sellers. And, unfortunately, Yoshida didn't kill the Vita - the market rejecting it did. It had arguably the strongest launch lineup of any system ever.
 
Blobbers said:
Is Shu responsible for the PS3 having great exclusives during the very last years of the last gen? If so, that's a thumbs up for supporting your console until the end.
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I'd say so. The global strategy of what kind of games are in production for what kind of platforms by what developers are ultimately his call.

In the end it's still up to each team to make the best game they can, but if they are falling behind then Shu has the say on delaying it for additional polish or canning it if it doesn't hit internal quality metrics.

------

vvv daveo42 vvv

Andrew House replaced Kaz Hirai. Shu Yoshida is the president of World Wide Studio and PSN is not in his responsibility, nor is marketing. Those are handled by the different regions. Not that they ignore his input, but he hasn't the final say unlike with first party title strategy.
 
I think he's done a solid job after Kaz moved up. A few things I think he does need to reel in:

- Continue to improve marketing of all games, big and small, on Sony platforms. We still face a lot of "Here's the game" marketing that means that the majority of people who buy some of these games only do because of enthusiast sites like NeoGAF. Gotta get the word out to the general populace.

- Wrangle some of the more leaky problems and projects and find ways to fix some of the brokens Sony still has. This includes TLG and the money pit is has no doubt become, PSN issues with connectivity, and some questionable title releases (Driveclub). Not saying that he has direct control of all of these situations or the means to "fix" them completely, but that direction should be put in place to correct course and get people in place who can do that. He's just a man, not a god.

Keep up the good work yosp.

Edit: I suppose the above points are moot. Thanks for the clarify benny_a
 
I like him. He was interviewed with jack Trenton a few years ago. Very open and candid interview. Yeah, he just comes across as very sincere and honest. Plus he streamed a ps4 session last year while he was at home I think. That was awesome.
 
TheHall said:
On Twitter....


Looking at the launch of Driveclub, i think SOME criticism is warranted.

He seems like a nice enough guy, but First Party titles are not exactly a highlight of 2014 for Sony.
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Obviously someone deserves criticism but what did Shu do to cause this?
 
I'm pretty indifferent. Sony has released an commendable amount of games the last two years. Few of them have actually interested me, but it's been a diverse catalog. I am very much looking forward to Bloodborne, Rime, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.

What I really want is a wRPG. I was disappointed when the SSM RPG was canceled, hopefully this rumored Guerrilla Games RPG is a real thing.
 
Don't like SWW output in the last 2-3 years. PS4 has no killer app this holiday season, even PS3 had Uncharted and Ratchet (and many more) in its first full holiday. I also don't like the focus on indies that also release on PS4 /"exclusive console debuts" instead of real indie exclusives. They're no incentive to get a PS4 if they're available elsewhere.
 
I personally like his personality. He just seems like a nice person. I probably shouldn't be admitting this, but I was under the impression that Shu worked for Andrew House.
 
John Bender said:
Shu Yoshida is one of the best in the console business.
Yup! He is awesome!

But one thing is missing:
He needs to build (or acquire) a JRPG team / studio.
(see Nintendo and Monolith)
The one thing that is missing in their SCEWWS -> a big JRPG title/studio.
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That and a western RPG from a European/US team. It sounds like GG is making that, and according to Verendus Studio Japan is working on the former.

I love Shu, but he has to take some blame for Driveclub being such a mess. He should have worked with Evolution and made sure they were ready.
 
He's doing good, not having something big for holiday 2014 is a bit of a mistake though.
He definitely needs to create a JRPG team.
 
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