Shuhei Yoshida, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, admits: In-house multiplayer titles are a point of improvement for Sony and the PS4. At the same time, he justifies the previous focus on single-player: Here lies the heart of the company’s studios.
Sony legend in conversation: During the “Develop: Brighton” developer conference, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, explained where he sees the strengths of his in-house game studio and where there is potential for improvement.
Sony needs more successful multiplayer titles
Sony’s strength is single-player games: According to Yoshida, Sony’s great strength as a first-party developer clearly lies in single-player titles like God of War or Horizon: Zero Dawn. However, when it comes to online games, the company sadly admits that it does have some shortcomings in this area.
Desire for successful multiplayer: At Develop: Brighton, the Sony boss honestly admitted that he wishes for more success for his company in terms of multiplayer games.
Therefore the focus on single-player: As reasons for the focus on single-player games, he pointed out Sony’s great strength in this area.
Nowadays, it is extremely challenging to develop a successful single-player or live multiplayer game. To keep risks in expensive AAA titles as low as possible, developers focus on what they do best. And what Sony’s first-party studios excel at are single-player games. So they focused on that. In this area, Sony sees the best opportunity to advance the art of creating triple-A titles.
On the other hand, Yoshida’s game teams not only have the task of following the success of the market but also of following their hearts, according to the Sony boss. The fact is that Sony is fortunate enough to be able to lead in certain areas with its teams, says Yoshida.
We don’t want to take anyone’s piece of cake; we want the cake to grow
His colleague Shaun Layden added that they are not out to create games that would take market shares from other publishers. Just because they manage the Sony platform doesn’t mean they intend to steal pieces of the cake. Instead, it’s about making the cake larger.
