Shuhei Yoshida, a "veteran executive" who served as President of PlayStation Studios and spent an impressive 31 years at Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE), officially concluded his career with the company on January 15, 2025.
While Yoshida shared a tweet (now X) about the farewell party SIE held for him, he also openly expressed his opposition to the company's recent "live-service game" policy, even suggesting that this development might have been one of the reasons behind his decision to leave.
Reflecting on the live-service strategy, Yoshida pointed out that this market mechanism inherently creates a "winner-take-all" scenario. In other words, only a select few titles manage to stand out and capture players' attention. This model presents significant challenges for exclusive games, especially when competing against juggernauts like "Call of Duty" and "Fortnite." 
He candidly admitted that if he were still in charge of a first-party studio, he would have firmly opposed such a policy direction. "I would try to resist this direction," he stated, "and perhaps that's one of the reasons they let me go."
Despite his reservations, Yoshida commended PlayStation for allocating additional resources to push live-service titles without sacrificing the development quality of single-player games. He cited the recent success of "Helldivers 2" as an example, suggesting that this approach might ultimately prove worthwhile.