Shuhei Yoshida
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Sony's Yoshida: getting third-party support on Vita more difficult than anticipated
Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida says the manuacturer is having a harder-than-expected time convincing publishers to develop game for the PlayStation Vita."We're having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that's our job," he said in an interview within the latest pages of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.In its recently released Q1 2012 results, Sony's gaming division was hit with a $45 million loss, forcing its sales forecast to be "downwardly revised."Despite big ticket franchises coming to the platform – with specifically designed versions of Assassin's Creed 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in the works, for example – other major publishers have yet to promise any major potential blockbuster releases for the platform.Speaking with Gamasutra, Yoshida pointed out that Sony has seen some success attracting independent developers to the platform, such as Sound Shapes dev Queasy Games and Knytt Underground developer Nifflas."We will continue to talk to development communities and publishing partners and tell them why Vita can provide a great experience for the IPs they have and I hope the Assassin's Creed game will prove that," Yoshida added in his interview with PTOM.
Yoshida on SOCOM: We 'never retire any franchise'
Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, wants to quell fears that we'll never see another entry in the SOCOM franchise. Even though series creators Zipper Interactive was shuttered back in March, "never say never," he said."It's not done. We never retire any franchise," Yoshida told Official PlayStation Magazine (via UK) when asked about future entries. Yoshida then pointed to Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, the recent resurrection of the Sly Cooper series, as a sign. "It's sometimes good to have a fresh look at the franchises we have."The last game in the series, SOCOM 4, was far from the series' best. So while it's hardly confirmation we'll see a new SOCOM game in the future, at least Zipper's closure is not the death knell we feared it was.
Kaz Hirai given commemorative PS3
There's only one way to get this extremely limited-edition PlayStation 3 system, and that's to be Kaz Hirai. SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida tweeted this scene of semi-outgoing Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kaz Hirai being presented with the unique-looking commemorative item.This might be the very last photograph of Kaz Hirai holding up a PS3. What will we do now, as a community?
Yoshida: No UMD Passport program in the west because of pricing, demand
The reason for the PlayStation Vita UMD Passport program's absence in the west boils down to pricing and demand, according to Sony senior VP Shuhei Yoshida. In a recent interview with Wired -- the same one in which he gave a progress report on The Last Guardian -- Yoshida explained that the market for PSP titles is much different in Japan.In Japan, said Yoshida, the PSP is still doing well. Many customers who might pick up a Vita are "also interested in playing PSP games that they might purchase before Vita comes out," he noted, adding that many such customers may not choose the (Vita compatible) digital versions.Furthermore, digital PSP releases in the west are available for "a really reasonable price." He mentioned Final Fantasy Tactics as an example, which is a $10 download in the US (cheaper than the iOS release!). Yoshida states that PSP games are much more expensive in Japan, so paying between $5 and $10 for a digital copy in addition to the UMD is a better value. "But when the games are already sold at a lower price in the U.S.," he said, "we see less value in introducing that kind of system."
Sony Santa Monica (and more) helping with The Last Guardian
Sony Senior VP Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed to Wired that Sony Santa Monica team members are contributing to The Last Guardian -- along with a few more. "Well, you know, it's not just Santa Monica," he says. "We have great tech people in Worldwide Studios. We have a central tech group in the U.S. and the U.K. so we are giving them whatever help they need. Technically, we have the best engineers in the U.S. and Europe, so these teams are helping them, giving advice."Progress on The Last Guardian may be slow right now, but Yoshida assures us the game is still coming. The departure of Fumito Ueda was exaggerated, he says, as the famed designer is still going to finish The Last Guardian on contract with Sony."At one point the progress was great, so we talked about the timing of the launch in the past. But now it's making progress, but still not to the level -- it's playable, but not to the point that we can talk about the timing of launch." But now, "the progress is slow," he says, and "sometimes the team has to go back and review things."The Last Guardian is still planned for 2012, but there seems to be little certainty over that time frame. "There's a vision that we want to realize but it's very very tough and technical issue that the team is tackling and some plans have to be made to evaluate and go through the process," Yoshida says.
Yoshida plays down lackluster Vita sales in Japan with PSP sales
President of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment Shuhei Yoshida recognizes that the Vita hasn't sold very well in Japan, but he thinks it will do better in the US. Why? Because Sony's previous handheld venture, the PSP, is still "very popular" in Japan. Or something like that."So, the Japanese launch, you saw the sell-through numbers, you notice that we haven't been able to sell out the units that we sold in," Yoshida told VentureBeat, responding to a prompt about lessons learned for the US launch from Japanese Vita sales. "But looking very objectively at the market situation there in Japan, especially on the portable, PSP is still very popular."Yoshida said Sony needs to communicate the Vita as a brand, not just another portable device, to potential players. Part of that is visible in Sony's marketing campaign, which includes $50 million of commercials, billboards, online banner ads, retail deals and hashtags."We are still seeing good sales through PSP, and we are advertising on TV, a dedicated PSP TV campaign, at the same time we are introducing Vita," Yoshida said, continuing to discuss the merits of the PSP as a children's entertainment system. He did mention one plan directly for the Vita: "At the same time, we are trying to communicate the value and new, exciting features of PS Vita to an older, mature, core gamer audience."
Why Sony passed on publishing Demon's Souls in America
Nobody expected Demon's Souls to be the hit it was, least of all Sony, the game's publisher in Japan. When Atlus decided to publish the game in North America, it took a risk -- one that paid off. The duty of publishing the sequel, Dark Souls, would then go to Namco Bandai.Does Sony regret passing on publishing Demon's Souls in North America? Senior VP Shuhei Yoshida thinks so. He told Game Informer the company passed on the game after seeing an earlier build of the game. "What happened with Demon's Souls was until very late in the game's development, we were not able to play the game through. There were framerate issues and the network was not up and running. We underestimated the quality of the game and to be honest, the media in Japan did the same."But still, even after a few hours with the final product, Yoshida remarked that he just wasn't able to see the value in the game. "For my personal experience with Demon's Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, 'This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.' So I put it aside." In the end, Yoshida admitted Sony "dropped the ball from a publishing standpoint" and was not able to "see the value of the product."
Yoshida: The Last Guardian still happening, but progress 'slow'
We've had assurances of The Last Guardian's continued existence, but in the absence of empirical proof we could always use one more. 1UP received a rather authoritative one from Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida at DICE, who said he's "been seeing it."Yoshida reports that, after leaving Sony and becoming a contractor, producer Fumito Ueda continues working on the game as normal. His departure was "an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side," Yoshida said. "But his work and his presence on that team never changed, so it was just more a contractual rearrangement, and that was taken [by many] as 'he left.'"Ueda is still in the office, "probably one of the people who works the longest hours," Yoshida said. Progress is still taking place on The Last Guardian, "but slow progress."
Shuhei Yoshida expects a focus on new IP for Vita
Sony president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has expressed his love for Queasy Games' Sound Shapes over the rest of the PlayStation Vita's lineup, and offered a couple hints as to the future of the new handheld's software lineup. "When we introduce new hardware with unique interfaces and network options, it is almost easier to work on something completely new," Yoshida said in a recent interview with Sony's EU PlayStation blog. "Take rear touch on PS Vita – we'd rather be thinking about how we can make fresh games using that feature than figuring out ways to add it to something that already exists." This concept is already reflected by games like the aforementioned Sound Shapes, as well as Escape Plan and Gravity Daze, while the opposite is reflected in entries like Uncharted, Resistance, and Killzone. That said, Sony's plans extend at least a few years into the future. "Generally we look three years ahead when we work on games. We have a fairly firm plan right up to 2013," Yoshida told the blog. He also admitted that, with PSP, the company's attention shifted dramatically to the PS3 when it launched, leaving the portable handheld somewhat in the dark -- something he promises won't happen with the Vita. "In the past we launched PSP and then shifted our attention to PS3 when that came on the horizon, which we now concede was a mistake. So with PS Vita we are working on this huge range titles and planning ahead for a constant supply of excellent games." Fingers crossed, folks!
Sony's Yoshida 'very aware' of how much we hate firmware updates
"I agree, it's very annoying when you only have one hour in your busy life to play a game, and when you have to spend 30 minutes out of that one hour to update the hardware." Shuhei Yoshida gets it. Speaking to Game Informer, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios concurs that both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable have made an intrusive habit out of firmware updates. And though the upcoming Vita "will be fortified" with regards to security, Yoshida hopes that updates will be reduced in footprint, if not in frequency. "So it's not necessarily the frequency of how we update, it's like you said – intrusiveness - of the current processes that we have on PS3 and PSP," says Yoshida. "I cannot talk about specific plans, but we are very aware of the issues, and we'd like to address those issues on PS Vita going forward." In the same interview, Yoshida elaborates on other lessons learned from the PSP's lifespan. Consistent, post-launch software support is crucial, he says, as is more distinct separation between portable games with console-level production values, and regular PlayStation 3 titles. "We had many products on PSP, but most of these games like God of War [Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta] came from the console. Basically, you can play a bigger, better version of these titles on PS3." Yoshida says Vita games must leverage traits unique to the portable system, so as not to simply reproduce franchises (including Uncharted and Resistance) that can be found in superior format on console. So, are touchscreen and tilt controls really enough to distinguish a game like Golden Abyss? Sony knows this is the kind of game you like to play; it just needs to convince you that it's the kind you also want to play on the Vita.
PlayStation Vita augmented reality comes in two very different flavors
Sony Computer Entertainment head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has a carpet with a little monkey in it. Except the monkey's virtual, and he's using a PlayStation Vita to make the little guy appear. Thus is the Vita's "Markerless AR," an augmented reality application that Yoshida demonstrated with a smile on-stage during Sony's TGS 2011 keynote this afternoon in Tokyo. Yoshida also had a set of marker cards and "Wide Area" AR to boot, showing off a full-scale game played across a table with a handful of marker cards laid out to assist in the process. Yoshida's demonstration seems to indicate the the Vita will ship with a variety of AR applications when it launches this December in Japan -- perhaps even more than the handful of AR games that Nintendo's 3DS came packed with earlier this year. We'll do our best to nail down some more specifics this week as TGS continues.
Torne application on PS Vita allows for remote TV recording and viewing
Sony's hardware-based Torne service is heading to the PlayStation Vita, albeit in application form. Sony head of worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida introduced the application live on-stage during today's second keynote, demonstrating the ability to navigate television listings, remotely set up recordings, and stream television, all via the PlayStation Vita and its Torne application. Yoshida never stated an exact release date, but he implied that the application would launch with the Vita in Japan this December. And as you might expect, the application is thus far only slated for the Japanese market.
PS Vita to pack 512MB of RAM, support cross-game voice chat
What's the difference between Sony's PlayStation Vita and the PS3? About 256MB of RAM, apparently. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that the forthcoming handheld will boast a full 512MB of RAM (compared to the PS3's 256MB), allowing the Vita to support cross-game voice chat via its Party feature. Yoshida's confirmation effectively debunks earlier rumors that Sony would be halving the Vita's RAM, in order to compete with the 3DS' lower price, though the console does feature comparatively less V-RAM (just 128MB, versus the PS3's 256MB). According to the executive, however, that disparity won't make too much of a difference on the gaming experience, due to changes in the Vita's display resolution. "The resolution on the PS Vita screen is much lower," Yoshida said. "Even though it's four times the resolution of PSP, compared to the console, the amount of data you have to push is much smaller." The proof, of course, is in the pudding, but unfortunately, we probably won't be tasting it for a while.
PlayStation Vita has more RAM than PS3 (hey, cross-game chat!)
More is always better, right? For Sony's upcoming PlayStation Vita portable, more RAM means it has some features that big brother PlayStation 3 doesn't: namely, cross-game chat, courtesy of the console's Party system. "So the reason why we were able to include something like Party, which enables cross-game voice chat," Sony Worldwide Studios prez Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer, "is because we designed Vita so it always has enough resources to handle something like that behind the game while it's running." Sony has finally confirmed the specifications of the system's RAM, after rumors that the electronics giant had halved the RAM to better compete on price with the 3DS. "There were some rumours for the last few months. Some developer mentioned the RAM was halved. We never announced the amount of RAM, and we never changed it," Yoshida said. So in order to combat confusion, they went into Gamescom unafraid to share those details. And, without further ado, we'll share those deets! The PlayStation Vita has 512MB of RAM and 128MB of V-RAM, compared to the PlayStation 3's 256MB of system RAM and 256MB of video RAM. While that's half of the PS3's video RAM, Yoshida reminds us that the resolution of the two platforms is very different. "The resolution on the PS Vita screen is much lower," he explained. "Even though it's four times the resolution of PSP, compared to the console, the amount of data you have to push is much smaller." While this all sounds like good news, there is another reading: Since the Vita uses all that extra system RAM to allow for cross-game chat, one could assume Sony will remain unable to implement the long-requested feature on the PS3. Then again, nearly five years into the console's life, that inability should be pretty apparent to everyone by now. [Update: Apparent as it may be, we thought we'd share this additional quote that Eurogamer published. "Once a game gets RAM we never give it back," Yoshida said. "It's not possible to retrofit something like that after the fact."]
Sony must support indie developers, says Yoshida
Speaking to Develop Online, Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studio President Shuhei Yoshida said that the gaming megalith sees value in the continuously expanding world of indie development, and that supporting those developers is the key to industry growth. "We have to support those smaller teams," he said. "Without doing so, the whole industry will stall, in terms of innovation." Yoshida thinks Sony's forthcoming PS Vita will serve as a good platform for indie developers currently subsisting in the mobile-phone universe, citing the handheld's capacitive touch-screen and AR capabilities as an entry-level gateway for development on the platform. He also added that the Vita's development kit has been specifically engineered with affordability in mind, and that the system is "small and light and easy for developers to handle." With smartphones gobbling up increasingly larger slices of the mobile gaming pie, Sony seems to be positioning itself as the indie-friendly option for mobile developers looking to enter the world of dedicated gaming devices.
PlayStation Vita's rear touch panel almost got bumped
It seems as if Sony wasn't quite feeling the PlayStation Vita's rear touch panel at first. Speaking to Famitsu (as translated by Andriasang), Sony's president of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, revealed that the portable's most groundbreaking feature was nearly stricken from the final design due to cost concerns. Specifically, Sony wasn't sure that the effect it would have on gameplay was worth its part of the sticker price. That changed, though, after people actually got their hands on it; it went from questionable to being a must-have feature. Yoshida said in the same interview that while the touch panel is definitely a keeper, some small elements of the Vita's design are still subject to change. We're guessing he means minor cosmetic tweaks, since the hardware we saw at E3 seemed pretty much final. Whatever gets altered, it'd better not involve removing the ultra-spiffy PlayStation icon pattern on the touch panel.
NGP in development 'since the beginning of 2008,' first-party Suite games in the works
How long has the successor to PSP been in the works? According to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, "since the beginning of 2008." The timing coincides with the first rumors about the device, which (correctly) predicted the system's lack of a UMD drive, touch screen and dual analog support. Yoshida also explained that Worldwide Studios had been officially involved with NGP game development since then, too, which helps explain the dearth of first-party content for the original PSP beginning in 2008. According to Wikipedia, Sony has released only 16 first-party games for the PSP in the last two years -- about the same number of games it had ready for the system's launch. While Sony is working on delivering triple-A titles for the NGP launch, Yoshida noted that first-party teams are also working on "short form games" for PlayStation Suite, Sony's upcoming cross-platform service for NGP and Android. Given the last game we recall Sony ever developing for a non-PlayStation device was Wipeout 64, that's certainly an historic move.
Sony's Shuhei Yoshida drops some NGP knowledge: PSP sticking around, PS3 games easy to port
Details about Sony's next-gen portable Playstation, the NGP, have been scarce since we spoke with SCEA President-CEO Jack Tretton about the new device. However, in an interview in the forthcoming issue of Edge, Shuhei Yoshida --who happens to be president of SCEA Worldwide Studios -- revealed a few more tidbits about Sony's NGP strategy (alas, still no official price). Apparently, the PSP will stick around even after NGP's release because of high demand for the older handheld, not to mention a lower price. For those of you concerned about a dearth of titles upon the NGP's debut -- a la the PS3 -- fear not, as Yoshida stated that porting PS3 games was a goal from the very beginning and the process will be simple (relatively speaking, of course). Combine that with a push to make the NGP's development environment "as easy as possible," and we'll hopefully see plenty of available titles upon the device's release. Oh yeah, Yoshida-san also said that NGP is just the console's codename, and the real name will be announced later this year -- PSP2 just rolls off the tongue, now doesn't it?
Yoshida: NGP and PSP will co-exist
Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida recently reaffirmed his belief in an age-old adage: Make new friends, but don't discontinue the old. Speaking to Edge (via CVG), Yoshida explained that the company plans to allow the PSP and its fresh, fresh successor, the NGP, to co-exist on store shelves. He added that the NGP "can't replace a platform that has already been on sale for seven years now." Wait, that's not how that works? We thought new things replace old things, and that's why they call them "new" and "old," respectively. Yoshida said that cost plays a part in Sony's strategy, explaining, "In terms of pricing, we can't sell the NGP for the same price as a PSP." He added, "I think the NGP needs time to mature and get adopted by users. So, for the time being, both platforms will coexist." We smell the origins of a wacky, generational gap-based sitcom, here.
Sony says NGP will be 'affordable,' won't cost $599, WiFi-only version also coming
We had quite the interview with Sony's Jack Tretton, but we certainly didn't corner the market on hot new NGP details -- Eurogamer and Game Informer quizzed the company's Andrew House and Shuhei Yoshida, respectively, and came out with some important tidbits about the quad-core gaming handheld, particularly regarding pricing. Though Tretton seemed to suggest we'll see a price somewhere northward of the Nintendo 3DS's $250, Yoshida was quoted as saying "It's not going to be $599," laughing off the idea that the system would cost as much as the PlayStation 3's infamous appraisal at launch, and House said that Sony "will shoot for an affordable price that's appropriate for the handheld gaming space." While none were willing to cough up a real ballpark estimate, the SCEE president revealed one way that the cost might come down: pushing out a lesser model, a strategy we've seen before. House said that while all devices come with WiFi, "a separate SKU will have 3G," making us wonder which of the handheld's other groundbreaking features might carry a premium. After all, OLED screens don't come cheap. Find the rest of Eurogamer's excellent interview (including a bit about how Sony will prioritize downloadable content over physical media) at our source link.
