All Good Things: A look back at Shuhei Yoshida’s 31 years with PlayStation

blog.playstation.com:

If you’ve listened to PlayStation Podcast over the past 14 years, then you definitely know Shuhei Yoshida. Perhaps best known for his lengthy turn as the President of PlayStation Studios during part of the PS3 and PS4 years, Yoshida-san has spent the past few years evangelizing independent developers as Head of Indies Initiative at PlayStation.

With PlayStation’s 30th anniversary arriving next week, I got some time to catch up with Yoshida-san to discuss his career, his plans for the future, and his top game picks across 30 years of PlayStation. Read on for some excerpts from our lengthy conversation.

Note: Interview condensed for clarity and brevity. To hear the full conversation, click here. (Apple, Spotify, direct DL)

SID: You were one of our first guests on the PlayStation Podcast, probably 14 years ago. But it’s been quite a while…. What have you been up to?

SHU: I’ve been traveling a lot! I’ve been all over the place. I’ve been in Brazil, India, Australia, Sweden, visiting developers, game events, looking at the new games from developers, and tweeting about games that I like throughout the year.

SID: Happy to have you, we’re going to do a lot of catching up. But I heard you had some news for us here today?

SHU: Yes, I have an announcement to make. I’m leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment on January 15 2025… it’s like announcing the launch date of a new game, [something] I haven’t done for a long time [laughs].

SID: You’ve been with Sony Interactive for so long. What’s guiding the decision and the timing?

SHU: I’ve been with PlayStation from the beginning, and this is my 31st year with PlayStation. And when I hit 30 years, I was thinking, hmm, it may be about time for me to move on. You know, the company’s been doing great. I love PS5, I love the games that are coming out on this platform. And we have new generations of management who I respect and admire. And I’m so excited for the future of PlayStation. 

So you know, PlayStation is in really good