Shuhei Yoshida, a veteran of Sony Interactive Entertainment, has revealed that his transition to leading PlayStation’s indie initiative in 2019 was not entirely voluntary. He stated that when then-CEO Jim Ryan offered him the role, the choice was to accept it or leave the company.

Moving from first-party to indies? Well, I had no choice. When Jim asked me to do the indie job, the choice was to do that or leave the company. But I felt very strongly about the state of PlayStation and indies. I really wanted to do this. I believed I could do something unique for that purpose. That was the bigger change for me personally, moving from first-party to indies, than leaving the company this year. 

Yoshida’s move from overseeing first-party studios to focusing on indie games aimed to strengthen PlayStation’s relationship with independent developers. This shift addressed criticisms that PlayStation was less supportive of smaller studios compared to competitors like Nintendo and Xbox.

What a crazy story and sad to hear that he was put in that situation but as always he made the best of a bad situation and I would say that PlayStation Indie offerings would not be where they are without him.

After 38 years at Sony, including 31 years at PlayStation, Yoshida departed the company on January 15, 2025. He plans to continue working with indie developers as an independent advisor.