Former PlayStation Studios executive Shuhei Yoshida said that he was "fired" by then-Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan "because I didn't listen to him."
Speaking at the ALT: GAMES 2026 festival, Yoshida spoke about his career at PlayStation and the transition from leading internal studios to supporting indie developers.
He noted:
I helped Santa Monica make God of War, Naughty Dog make Uncharted and The Last of Us, and Sucker Punch make the wonderful Ghost of Tsushima.
According to him, "Ghost of Tsushima was one of the last games I worked on as president of Worldwide Studios."
He then added:
But in 2019, after 11 years of leading internal development, I was fired from that position.
"Jim Ryan wanted to remove me from internal development because I didn't listen to him [laughter followed in the hall - ed.]. He asked for some absurd things to be done, and I said \"no\"."
Later, he clarified that after leaving, he was offered the opportunity to work on the indie direction, since the company knew about his interest in independent games.
Jim Ryan led Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2019 to 2024. During that time, the company strengthened its work with PC, expanded PlayStation Studios, and carried out a number of major acquisitions, including Bungie, Insomniac Games, and Bluepoint Games.
Yoshida left Sony in 2025 and founded the consulting company Yosp Inc., continuing to work with indie games.
