Key Takeaways
- Yoshida believes he wasn’t considered for the PlayStation CEO role because he was deemed “too crazy” by business executives.
- Yoshida acknowledged that past SIE heads after Ken Kutaragi have primarily been business-oriented individuals.
- Currently, Hideaki Nishino is the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida retired from Sony last year, and once he was out of the company, he gave many candid answers to some interesting questions. Yoshida even revealed that he was forced to take an indie job at the company or he would have been asked to quit.
With over 30 years of employment history with the PlayStation and even part of the company’s birth of its gaming division, some might be wondering why Yoshida wasn’t offered the CEO role at PlayStation. If you were, you’re not the only one.
Yoshida Thinks He’s “Too Crazy” for the Business People to Entrust the PlayStation Division to Him
In a feature by Game File (locked behind a subscription) where devs were given a chance to ask other people within the industry a question, Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux asked, “I thought he’d be in the running for being the head of SIE. Why are you not the boss of SIE today?”
Yoshida’s response? It’s mostly because he didn’t think like a “suit” (a term often used for business executives).
“Yoshida: Probably because they didn’t trust me as [to] making the best business decisions… I always wanted to do something interesting, you know, something new or innovative and never done before, that may become the great thing in the future, [that] kind of thing,” Yoshida explained.
As a follow-up question, Yoshida was asked that maybe part of the decision-makers consider is that at least of what the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment needs to has to involve safer things?
Yoshida answered, “Look at all the heads of SIE in the past, other than Ken Kutaragi. He was crazy, right? So he did something totally crazy. But after Ken: Kaz [Hirai], Andrew [House], Jim Ryan, all business people, right? So there must be a reason for that.”
When shared that maybe he was a “little too crazy for them,” Yoshdia couldn’t help but agree, stating, “yeah.”
I must admit, a PlayStation with Yoshida as CEO would have been exciting to see unfold. Currently, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO is Hideaki Nishino, who was elevated to the position after sharing CEO duties with Hermen Hulst, who has since been appointed as the head of PlayStation Studios, and directly reports to Nishino.
Do you think Yoshida would have made a good PlayStation CEO? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
