Shuhei Yoshida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios and indie game champion, has announced that he will be leaving the company after 31 years.
After more than three decades at PlayStation, Shuhei Yoshida has announced that he will be stepping down as the company's head of independent projects. Yoshida oversaw a plethora of games during his tenure at PlayStation, producing a total of 429 games throughout his career, and has long been a strong voice for the company's independent developers. The developer took over as president of SIE Worldwide Studios in 2008, eventually stepping down from the role in 2019 to take on the aforementioned role as head of indie games, which has been a major focus for him ever since.
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You can tell just by looking at his Twitter, where Red Candle Games' Nine Sols is even promoted in his bio as it's coming to PlayStation. Indie games are very important to him, and he explained on the PlayStation Blog that whenever he attends an event like E3, he “always goes to the indie games section,” and that his role as head of the indie game program is a “Dream job” for him.
He also noted that he had been with PlayStation since before the original PlayStation launched, joining in February 1993, and having worked for such a company for such a long time, you'd think Yoshida would have all kinds of proud moments. But the one that stands out the most for him actually has to do with the indie classic The Journey. “Of all those moments, one that was very, very special to me was when Journey won the Game of the Year award,” Yoshida said.
“Journey was released on the PlayStation Network. It was a digital-only little game. You could play it in three hours. But that game…[won] Game of the Year versus all these AAA games, which I think is the first time in the industry… Creator Jenova Chen spoke at the summit, and he talked about a letter he received from a girl who lost her father , she thought she could move on with her life regarding her father. The audience stood up and the room was filled with a feeling of happiness and wonder that this little game could have such a big impact on people's lives. ”
Yoshida hasn't revealed what he'll do next, but we can safely assume he'll continue to put indies in the spotlight.
