Shuhei Yoshida, former PlayStation executive, opens on his departure from PlayStation: “Jim Ryan asked me to do some ridiculous things”

Shuhei Yoshida, the former president of SCE Worldwide Studios and the man who went on to lead what is now known as PlayStation Studios, recently spoke about his time at the company, revealing that his departure was partly due to Jim Ryan.

During the ALT: GAMES event in Australia, and as reported by This Week in Video Games, Yoshida spoke about his time leading Worldwide Studios and the titles he supported. However, by 2019, the situation would take a turn with Ryan’s rise to a position of greater power within the company.

“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,” he commented, describing this work during the 2000s. “Ghost of Tsushima was one of the last games that I worked on as the president of Worldwide Studios. But in 2019, after 11 years leading the first-party development, I was fired from the role. Jim Ryan wanted to remove me from first-party because I didn’t listen to him. He asked me to do some ridiculous things, and I said ‘No.’”

A job change that marked his departure

As many will recall, Yoshida’s final departure took place in January 2025, after 31 years with the company. However, it was in November 2019 when Hermen Hulst was promoted to Head of Worldwide Studios, which led Yoshida to step down from his role to focus on the brand’s relationship with independent developers. Regarding this change, Yoshida acknowledged that it was because “everyone in the company knew how much I loved indie games.”

For his part, Jim Ryan served as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2019 to 2024, a period marked by key decisions during a generational transition. Although acquisitions that strengthened what is now PlayStation Studios—such as Insomniac Games, Housemarque, Bluepoint Games, and Bungie—were finalized under his leadership, it was also a period characterized by studio closures and internal layoffs, as the company sought to place greater emphasis on games-as-a-service.

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