In an official PlayStation podcast interview, Shuhei Yoshida made the announcement that he will be leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment after working there for 31 years. His official leaving date is January 15, 2025. He has had some truly iconic moments throughout his time at PlayStation. From falling asleep during a monologue from David Cage in 2013 to the iconic video demonstrating how to share games on PS4 right after Microsoft’s failed Xbox One announcement. Throughout the years, he’s become a very well-known face at the company, and in 2019, he made the decision to encourage indie developers to publish their games for PlayStation. As a result of his major contributions to the gaming industry, he was awarded the BAFTA Games Fellowship in 2023.
In the official PlayStation Podcast interview, he explained his decision to leave the company and some of the best moments he’s had while working there.
“I’ve been with PlayStation from the beginning, and this is my 31st year with PlayStation. When I hit 30 years, I was thinking, it may be about time for me to move on. You know, the company’s been doing great. I love PlayStation 5, I love the games that are coming out on this platform. And we have new generations of management who I respect and admire. And I’m so excited for the future of PlayStation. So you know, PlayStation is in really good hands. I thought, okay, this is my time.”
At the moment, Yoshida has said that he has no plans for what’s next, but that he would like to stay in the industry to continue to help independent game developers. For now, though, he has been traveling a lot, meeting with developers, and attending game events. He’s also been looking at new and upcoming games while making sure to post about games that he has enjoyed throughout the year.
Yoshida originally joined Ken Kutaragi’s team in February 1993 when they were still developing the original PlayStation. The team consisted exclusively of engineers, and Yoshida joined as the first person who wasn’t in a technical role. In this role, he was in charge of talking to publishers and developers in Japan to try and get them to create games on PlayStation.
If you want to hear everything that Shuhei Yoshida has to say about his 31 years at PlayStation, you can listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify. Alternatively, you can read the transcript between Sid Shuman and Shuhei Yoshida on the PlayStation blog.