Former PlayStation Studios head Shuhei Yoshida admits former CEO fired him

Shuhei Yoshida, who has been the long-time face of PlayStation’s first-party development, has revealed that his departure from leading Sony’s worldwide studios in 2019 was less of a voluntary step-down and more of a dismissal by former CEO Jim Ryan.

Speaking at the Alt:Games festival in Australia this past weekend, Yoshida added that he was "fired" from his role as President of SIE Worldwide Studios because he refused to follow certain directions from Ryan. At the time, the transition looked as if Yoshida was changing his role, he clarified that it happened because he "didn’t listen" to the then-boss of PlayStation.

"Jim Ryan wanted to remove me from first-party because I didn't listen to him," Yoshida told the audience. "He asked to do some ridiculous things, and I said 'No.'"

Yoshida’s tenure as the head of first-party development lasted 11 years - this period the birth (and polishing) of massive franchises like The Last of Us, God of War, Uncharted, and Ghost of Tsushima.

While Yoshida didn't elaborate on the specific "ridiculous" requests, he has hinted in previous interviews that he would've gone against Sony’s aggressive move toward live-service games, and this is the strategy that became a hallmark of the Jim Ryan era. However, despite the bluntness of the word "fired," Yoshida did speak about the situation with his characteristic good humor. He said that he and Ryan had worked together since the original PlayStation era in the 1990s and remained friends, though that history somewhat complicated their professional reporting structure. He added:

Because I grew up with Jim from the PS1 days... you don't want to have one of your friends as one of your subordinates.

When the change was first announced in 2019, many fans were surprised to see a veteran shifting to a smaller initiative. He has since admitted that the choice given to him was simple: take the indie role or leave the company. He chose to stay for the next five years before finally leaving Sony in early 2025.