PlayStation founding member Shuhei Yoshida is leaving Sony

After helping to develop the PlayStation brand for 30 years, former SIE Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida has announced that he is leaving Sony.

Lee Brady

Published 27 Nov 2024

From working to establish the PS1 as the place to be for new developers in the 90s to leading PlayStation Studios (then named SIE Worldwide Studios), the PlayStation brand owes a great deal to Shuhei Yoshida. However, after 31 years with the company, Shuhei Yoshida has revealed that he is leaving Sony and moving on to pastures new.

Shuhei Yoshida, former SIE Worldwide Studios head, will leave Sony

Shuhei Yoshida joined Sony's PlayStation team in 1993 to attract developers to the PS1
Yoshida was President of PlayStation Studios (then SIE Worldwide Studios) from 2008 to 2019
After stepping down, Yoshida continued to work at Sony as Head of Indies Initiative

As revealed via PlayStation Blog, Shuhei Yoshida will be leaving Sony in January 2025. As expected of one of the most well-regarded businessmen in the games industry, the reason for the departure isn't dramatic — he's just moving on.

via PlayStation Blog, along with his PlayStation Stars bobblehead.

Speaking to PlayStation Podcast, Yoshida said: "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 hands. I thought, okay, this is my time."

One of PlayStation's longest-serving members, Yoshida was the 32nd employee to join Ken Kutaragi's team at Sony back in 1993 while they were still developing the PS1. Starting with account management, Yoshida went on to produce some of Sony's biggest PS1 games, including Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Gran Turismo, Ape Escape, and The Legend of Dragoon.

In the early PS2 era, Yoshida became the Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment America, and later oversaw the unified game development of Sony as President of SCE/SCI Worldwide Studios (now PlayStation Studios). For the average PlayStation fan, he also became an icon as one of the two men responsible for dealing the killing blow to Xbox One during the PS4's launch with the infamous game sharing instruction guide (embedded above).

After stepping down from his leadership role, Yoshida continued to work alongside developers as PlayStation's Head of Indie Initiative — effectively a continuation of the same role he worked as back in PlayStation's earliest days. It's the role he also seems proudest of, taking a moment in his interview to reflect on the success of the indie game Journey on PS3 during his tenure.

He said: "However, among all of these times, one time stood out for me in my memory as something really, really special was when Journey got the Game of the Year Award. Journey was distributed through PlayStation Network. It was a digital-only, small game. You can finish playing the game within like three hours."

"But that game…[won] Game of the Year against all these AAA titles, I think for the first time in the industry. The creator Jenova Chen did a talk at the summit, and he talked about a letter he received from a girl who lost her father and she thought about her father and she was able to move on in her life."

"The whole audience stood up and the whole room was filled with happiness and an amazing feeling that this small game could have such a big impact on people’s lives."

At the time of writing, Yoshida holds 790 credits across more than 400 PlayStation games, including some of the best PS5 games like Astro Bot and Stellar Blade. Here's hoping he continues to contribute to more great games even after his time with Sony. How do you feel about Shuhei Yoshida leaving Sony in 2025? Let us know down in the comments below.

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Written by Lee Brady

News Editor Lee covers the latest upcoming PS5 games like Ghost of Yotei while making sure PlayStation Plus’ classic PS1 and PS2 games are given enough respect. Lee leads the charge on our original data analysis courtesy of GameInsights. His 25 years of PlayStation experience compliments his love of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Sonic the Hedgehog.