It sounds surprising at first, but former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has openly said that he was actually “fired” from one of his biggest roles at Sony. Speaking at the ALT: GAMES 2026 festival in Australia, he looked back at his career and explained what happened in 2019, when he stepped down after leading internal development for 11 years.
During the talk, Yoshida also spoke about his long career and the games he helped bring to life. He explained, “I helped Santa Monica to make God of War, Naughty Dog to make Uncharted and The Last of Us, and Sucker Punch to make the beautiful Ghost of Tsushima.” His work covered many of PlayStation’s biggest franchises over more than three decades at the company.
The most direct moment came when Yoshida talked about his relationship with former CEO Jim Ryan and why he lost his position. He said, “But in 2019, after 11 years leading the first-party development, I was fired from the role. Ryan wanted to remove me from first-party because I didn’t listen to him. He asked to do some ridiculous things, and I said ‘No.'”
Despite the blunt language, Yoshida made it clear that he was speaking in a light and friendly way. He and Jim Ryan had known each other since the early days of PlayStation, and he even joked about their working relationship, saying, “You don’t want to have one of your friends as one of your subordinates.”
After this change, he was offered a new role focused on supporting indie developers. Yoshida stayed with Sony in that role until his retirement in January 2025, after more than 30 years at the company. He now runs his own consulting firm, Yosp Inc., where he continues to support indie developers. For more PlayStation related coverage, keep checking GameObserver.
