Sacred Symbols+, Episode 437 | Two Whole Hours With Shuhei Yoshida
Added 2025-02-19 04:26:53 +0000 UTCIt's me, Colin. In my lengthy experience covering PlayStation professionally, I've had the pleasure of speaking with and interviewing legendary Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida many times. But today, I'm pleased to present you our very first chat in more than eight years. (Indeed, I approached him to talk with me because so many of you asked me to. So thank you for that.) Shu and I touched on a lot of things here, far too many to list. Some points of interest: Thoughts on Sony's pursuit of games-as-a-service, Jim Ryan's seeming ultimatum to go indie or leave, the process of both buying and shutting down first party studios, whether the abandonment of PlayStation-published shooters at the beginning of the PS4 generation was a mistake, future potential for a PlayStation All-Stars-like product, details on Sucker Punch's cancelled game Prophecy and Santa Monica's cancelled untitled sci-fi title, why Sony never purchased Quantic Dream, the perceived loss of the brand's Japanese identity, and much more. There's a whole lot in here for PlayStation nerds, so please enjoy.
Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro
00:04:44 - The GamesBeat interview
00:12:28 - Sony’s on and off shift with online games
00:24:12 - Should PlayStation release games day 1 on PC?
00:26:21 - Should Sony investigate games on other platforms?
00:32:34 - Xbox games on PlayStation
00:37:48 - Is it better for Sony to be less reliant on first party?
00:41:16 - What goes into deciding an acquisition?
00:48:38 - Studios that got away
00:50:38 - Buying Insomniac
0:53:10 - Closing studios
00:57:53 - Where does second party fit in?
01:09:54 - Growing PlayStation in China with censorship
01:13:56 - PlayStation All-Stars
01:18:21 - PlayStation's Japanese identity
01:24:06 - PlayStation becoming more US focused
01:31:31 - Sucker Punch's Prophecy
01:36:01 - Santa Monica's canceled game
01:42:09 - Demon's Souls
01:48:52 - The opportunity cost of live service
01:55:45 - Reaction to Intergalactic
01:57:03 - Boomerang controller
Comments
Great interview. So many insights!
Deutschbag
2025-03-05 00:17:28 +0000 UTCMore please!!!
Tyler Lindbeck
2025-03-02 11:21:30 +0000 UTCColin is the man, great job
Aaron Barstow
2025-02-26 17:25:43 +0000 UTCAwesome interview
Chase Carter
2025-02-26 06:10:09 +0000 UTC😂 would be great though! Also Shu has worked with Jaffe a ton I’m sure lol
Draven E.
2025-02-25 12:10:53 +0000 UTCYou don’t wanna scare the innocent Japanese man
Ahlickaloo
2025-02-25 11:57:10 +0000 UTCWe need Shu x Jaffe x Moriarty!! Make it happen!!
Draven E.
2025-02-25 09:50:22 +0000 UTCThis doesn't show up on my RSS feed. That's really annoying.
Jonny Sousa
2025-02-23 21:44:16 +0000 UTCBut are they probing like Colin Moriarty?
Ahlickaloo
2025-02-22 22:52:46 +0000 UTCColin rules! Breaking down walls and bringing the best content
NecrumOddBoy
2025-02-22 22:26:41 +0000 UTCThis was a GREAT interview.
Drew Hilliard
2025-02-22 17:27:11 +0000 UTCSuch a fantastic interview and conversation , thank you!!
Colin Kolhoven
2025-02-22 12:13:32 +0000 UTCThat was such a cool episode. Great questions, really insightful, and Shuei is always a hoot to hear. Stuff like that and so many more great episodes is why my subscriptions is worth so much more than money to me. Well done Colin!
Mike Moran
2025-02-22 02:31:28 +0000 UTCAbsolutely agree on ~15 hour games. Don't need every game to be 35+ hours. Longer games also largely kill replayablility.
Jerry Flowers III
2025-02-21 07:32:45 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed this conversation! It was really great to have Shu and Colin talk with their deep knowledge of PlayStation. Super fun, and hope they talk again later in the year
Lucas Hixon
2025-02-21 04:27:11 +0000 UTCExcellent interview. You two have good chemistry, he seemed relaxed.
Christopher Hoff
2025-02-20 23:52:35 +0000 UTCLoved this conversation with Shuhei. What an awesome guy. Thanks, Colin, for coming up with great questions.
Powerage
2025-02-20 22:56:19 +0000 UTCI love how excited Yoshida San was to talk with Colin. Calling out the "Colin Moriarty" questions
SIR_K_Daddy
2025-02-20 17:38:22 +0000 UTCThis was a fun episode and a great interview.
PairOfShuse
2025-02-20 17:23:36 +0000 UTCHands down, my favorite episode you have done yet. Guys like Shu and Cerny are fascinating people and love listening to them. Great job!
Robbie Cooper
2025-02-20 16:58:46 +0000 UTCFinally saw this was addressed in a patreon post from Colin. Apparently all the feeds have been broken up into their own individual rss feeds per show. I was able to get these added to Spotify. I personally didn't mind having the feed for all shows but it is what it is.
Billy Wright
2025-02-20 15:34:49 +0000 UTCThis is awesome! Great work.
Nicholas Renaud
2025-02-20 12:10:29 +0000 UTCAwesome episode. Great work Colin and team!
Declan McIntyre
2025-02-20 10:39:34 +0000 UTCYeah, I was in the middle of this episode earlier today when it suddenly just skipped to the next in my queue. This episode vanished from the feed and my history for some reason.
OnyxOsprey
2025-02-20 06:53:40 +0000 UTCAmazing interview
Carlos
2025-02-20 04:49:36 +0000 UTCIf/when he comes back in a few months you should ask him about that Halloween tweet from a few years ago, not all of those games have come out yet, but wasn’t he there when that tweet was sent?
Trevor Myers
2025-02-20 04:32:02 +0000 UTCGreat interview. Long overdue. ❤️
NeO JD
2025-02-20 02:17:58 +0000 UTCExcellent interview, as expected. Well done, Colin. Hoping you get Shu back for another chat. I’d love for you to ask him more about Media Molecule and their status as a first party team.
Shane Bailey
2025-02-20 00:27:16 +0000 UTCExcellent interview, Colin! There’s a lot of good stuff here to digest. I think that’s something everyone can appreciate, is that you know how to conduct an interview and build relationships with your guests. You’re always asking the right questions, without applying too much pressure, in order to siphon good answers and new information we haven’t heard already from other sources. Not everyone has that level of touch to be able to navigate like that in this space, but that goes to show why Last Stand is the dominant entity that it is on Patreon. It has integrity, as well as the creative and business minds behind it to understand its audience and trust in the foundation it was built upon.
Derek Williams
2025-02-19 23:52:36 +0000 UTCThat was amazing ❤️🤘🏻
Spencer Young
2025-02-19 21:58:13 +0000 UTCI’ll never buy the reasoning behind TLOU online’ cancellation and that Naughty Dog underestimated the effort to support a live service game. Bullshit. There’s no way a first party studio alongside PlayStation put zero forethought into long term efforts post launch, it’s inconceivable with development at that level. There has to be another reasoning aside from Bungie just decreeing from on high that it wasn’t up to snuff. Anyway, Shuhei is wonderful to listen to and hearing him state “this is a Colin Moriarty question’ made me chuckle. Jim Ryan man, smh.
The Rose Experience
2025-02-19 21:29:26 +0000 UTCI was listening to this on the Spotify Last Stand Media podcast feed then they apparently yeeted all the episodes from this week including Sacred+? Welp.
Billy Wright
2025-02-19 21:25:00 +0000 UTCYeah I haven't had an Xbox since 360 but I've watched every Defining Duke as a PC guy. Even Matty admitted a majority of his gaming this past year was PC with next to nothing on the actual Xbox. It would be cool to have Chris / Dustin on when they've played a specific game on PC.
Joshua
2025-02-19 19:18:41 +0000 UTCI'm glad that from what I've seen most websites are actually linking back to the source.
Michael Welter
2025-02-19 19:01:18 +0000 UTClmao someone else had my exact thought
Child Aloy
2025-02-19 18:53:45 +0000 UTCI feel like that may be what Matty and Cog pivot to.
Child Aloy
2025-02-19 18:52:54 +0000 UTC🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hustle&Motiv8
2025-02-19 18:47:16 +0000 UTCWow. Cool shit man. Hell yea.
Bartevious
2025-02-19 18:43:44 +0000 UTC🫱🏽🫲🏼
Samurai Costanza
2025-02-19 18:34:55 +0000 UTCI never comment but damn what a great interview. Happy to see you reunited with an old friend, Colin.
Christian Montes
2025-02-19 18:22:50 +0000 UTCColin, just started listening, you’re point about being like an old IGN style setup; you should really do a PC show. Imagine how many new nerds you could bring over.
Matt
2025-02-19 18:07:44 +0000 UTCI really don’t want to sound like I want to wear Colin’s skin as a body suit or anything.. but I actually felt something when I first heard Colin and Shu’s introduction together after all these years. As a weekly Beyond listener starting in 2012, day one KF patron, and day one CLS (LSM) patron.. it was just so cool to see these two sitting down ‘together’ again after all these years. I’ve listened to the other interviews, and props to Colin as he’s clearly shown to be one of the best interviewers in the medium, even next to Greg. Great listen and congrats Colin.
Zachary Abell
2025-02-19 17:57:12 +0000 UTCCute ass lil Japanese guy 😊
Brenden
2025-02-19 17:46:59 +0000 UTCThank you for this!
Frank
2025-02-19 17:42:08 +0000 UTC🐐
Aswad Charles
2025-02-19 17:27:30 +0000 UTCAmazing job Colin! You make it extremely easy to pledge money to LSM.
Michael Mashpotato
2025-02-19 17:08:49 +0000 UTCIt’s weird and disappointing how this interview is being cited across games media, but I think it’s just another reminder of how these petty people are part of a dying form of media anyways. Shu mentioned many times how well Colin knows the industry and complimented his questions. That had to be an awesome validation to receive, and the only one that matters.
Noah Trujillo
2025-02-19 16:29:40 +0000 UTCYeeessss! SHUUUUUU!!!!
james glenn roten
2025-02-19 16:04:18 +0000 UTCThanks for changing your mind on this - it is something we definitely wanted!
Jdummann92
2025-02-19 15:04:16 +0000 UTC🐐
Michael Mashpotato
2025-02-19 14:53:17 +0000 UTCWow Colin! This is big! Not just because it’s Shu, but you’re asking decent questions!
Gareth Handa
2025-02-19 14:42:54 +0000 UTCLSM has been the best it’s ever been lately. Just started listening, great start to my work day.
Singing Fugu Fish
2025-02-19 14:26:35 +0000 UTCAre you kidding me? Absolute BANGER
Breno Bezerra Bluhm
2025-02-19 14:16:17 +0000 UTCLet's gooooooo
Robin Meyer
2025-02-19 14:16:00 +0000 UTCExcellent!
Jeffrey Petrie
2025-02-19 14:12:48 +0000 UTCW
Chris Smith
2025-02-19 14:12:03 +0000 UTCThe only shu interview I wanna hear.
Tanner Denso
2025-02-19 14:00:39 +0000 UTCGetting my $5 worth hell yeah brother
ThroatCoatGoat
2025-02-19 13:38:05 +0000 UTCWhaaaat?! Sick dude!
lazer_josh
2025-02-19 13:32:15 +0000 UTCWHOAAAAAA!!! Colin’s “don’t announce until it drops” mantra is great
John
2025-02-19 13:15:45 +0000 UTCHell yeah Collin best fucking podcast network ever. 👏👏👏
Otacon_Ocelot
2025-02-19 13:13:22 +0000 UTCMy man really dropping one of th hypest interviews when I'm asleep🔥
Chris's Closeted Weeabo Side
2025-02-19 13:06:27 +0000 UTCColin M absolute GOAT move, can’t wait for this.
oh that pesky dna
2025-02-19 12:39:57 +0000 UTCCan't wait to listen to this today!
Damien Groome
2025-02-19 12:20:54 +0000 UTCAwesome, Colin! 🤙
Joe Perez
2025-02-19 12:13:37 +0000 UTCWhat a legend. Shu is the GOAT and Congrats to Last Stand for getting him in.
Nick Vieu
2025-02-19 12:08:14 +0000 UTCI’m so excited to hear this. I’m about to begin. Shuhei is one of my all time favorite Japanese people. #JapaneseMtRushmore
Sween flossing with his own entire body
2025-02-19 08:48:00 +0000 UTCAwesome interview. Love Shuhei!
NorthOfAmerica
2025-02-19 08:28:14 +0000 UTCI love a good surprise!
StewDog
2025-02-19 08:19:35 +0000 UTCCongrats, Colin. You deserve the big gets.
Jamie Hexum
2025-02-19 08:15:10 +0000 UTCWow he did the thing! Good job Shu
Robbie Agnew
2025-02-19 08:10:12 +0000 UTCExcellent interview, I really wish it didn’t keep me up until 3:00am though.
Link
2025-02-19 07:57:17 +0000 UTCProps for this team , great content
Luke Knockton
2025-02-19 07:46:07 +0000 UTCColin “the hammer” Moriarty
Eric Bolella
2025-02-19 07:26:19 +0000 UTCHell yeah, Shu is a real one. Glad to see you got an interview with him so quick
Deemac
2025-02-19 07:15:07 +0000 UTCYoshida san is a legend!
Marco Maluf
2025-02-19 06:48:32 +0000 UTCShuhei spending the holidays with both of his divorced dads
Gabriel Baker
2025-02-19 06:32:20 +0000 UTCThis is awesome! Can’t wait!
Ross Stoddart
2025-02-19 06:26:57 +0000 UTCHoly moly! What a get!
Michael Caswell
2025-02-19 06:03:28 +0000 UTCAwesome get Colin, congrats!
Link
2025-02-19 05:54:41 +0000 UTCI’m so happy this happened, redemption.
Hector Salcido
2025-02-19 05:50:20 +0000 UTCColin did it!!
JP Morris
2025-02-19 05:48:26 +0000 UTCAwesome!
Mike R
2025-02-19 05:44:18 +0000 UTCAmazing. Thank you
Ulziidamba Enkhsaikhan
2025-02-19 05:36:21 +0000 UTCShu has been doing the rounds at many outlets
Aaron
2025-02-19 05:29:57 +0000 UTCFuck yes Colin thank you!
Mattveego
2025-02-19 05:21:11 +0000 UTCCouldn’t click that notification fast enough!
Drew Agnew
2025-02-19 05:16:24 +0000 UTCCOLIN YOU LEGEND! This is incredible. It's like listening to two friends reunite after so long
Shadi Haddad
2025-02-19 05:10:02 +0000 UTCHOLY SHIT
Moi
2025-02-19 05:09:19 +0000 UTCYuhhhh
FoundWaldo
2025-02-19 05:07:45 +0000 UTCThis is awesome colin thank you for this interview with shuhei!!
mattyboy316
2025-02-19 05:05:05 +0000 UTCWoj bomb
Brandon Tyler
2025-02-19 05:05:01 +0000 UTCWtf this was NOT on my bingo card
Pianopower
2025-02-19 05:03:35 +0000 UTCI like to think my write in that he read a few weeks ago kicked this off, but I'm probably just being full of myself. Can't wait to listen to it!
ajwhite
2025-02-19 04:56:51 +0000 UTCBro!!!!
Nick La Creta
2025-02-19 04:55:05 +0000 UTCHoly fucking shit. This is dope. Congrats.
Michael Hobbs
2025-02-19 04:54:46 +0000 UTCWow
Andre Ordonez
2025-02-19 04:50:28 +0000 UTCJust let me be a homer
Jimbo
2025-02-19 04:49:05 +0000 UTClol, how is this a one up? Shu has been on KF and MinnMax. If anything it’ll make for another interesting conversation
Daniel E
2025-02-19 04:48:17 +0000 UTCOh hell yes.
Ryan Taylor
2025-02-19 04:45:00 +0000 UTCLet’s go!! 🤘🏼
UnchartedShinobi
2025-02-19 04:43:02 +0000 UTCI cannot wait for what will be the best interview with Shu yet. Oh my God.
Waqar Uddin
2025-02-19 04:40:09 +0000 UTCWas not expecting this.
Jacob Lewis
2025-02-19 04:38:11 +0000 UTCYou got the GOAT
Nat Patterson
2025-02-19 04:37:54 +0000 UTCI never thought you'd get a (former) PlayStation executive on your show. Bravo sir, I'm looking forward to listening to this interview
Cedric S
2025-02-19 04:37:02 +0000 UTCOh shit
Seth Zentner
2025-02-19 04:35:59 +0000 UTCAmazing, looking forward to listening to this one!
Digital-Bath
2025-02-19 04:34:12 +0000 UTCWow I never thought it would happen
Bryan Juarez
2025-02-19 04:33:35 +0000 UTCI was wondering why patreon was notifying me at this time of night. HELL YES!
Casey Weinmann
2025-02-19 04:32:49 +0000 UTCI had to do a double take when I saw my notifications. Stoked!!!
Collin Sparling
2025-02-19 04:32:25 +0000 UTCLSM one upping Kinda Funny? Gotta love it
Jimbo
2025-02-19 04:32:01 +0000 UTCAYOOOOO. That notification caught me way off guard lmao good shit, Colin.
Alec Rock
2025-02-19 04:31:50 +0000 UTCJust dropping bombs randomly in classic Colin fashion. Love it!
Greg Shapiro
2025-02-19 04:31:25 +0000 UTCDifferent type of late night snack.
Cameron
2025-02-19 04:30:56 +0000 UTCWHAAAAT LETS GO
Michael Welter
2025-02-19 04:30:22 +0000 UTCYOOOOOOOO
Adam Razak
2025-02-19 04:30:14 +0000 UTCThis feels like a dream
Dillan Bhikha
2025-02-19 04:30:12 +0000 UTCWooooo Shu!
Tanner Brant
2025-02-19 04:30:11 +0000 UTCWhat
ShinyRyuji
2025-02-19 04:30:07 +0000 UTCYo delivering the GOODS
Stephen Hunter Strong
2025-02-19 04:29:59 +0000 UTCWhoa
Dennis
2025-02-19 04:29:12 +0000 UTCHOLY FUCK
Geoff
2025-02-19 04:29:10 +0000 UTCNice one, Colin!!!
Wirrie-san
2025-02-19 04:29:05 +0000 UTCYESSSSSSSS
AL022
2025-02-19 04:29:02 +0000 UTCHell Ya!!!!!
Trevor Myers
2025-02-19 04:29:01 +0000 UTCLETS GOOOOOOOOOO
Kevin Diaz
2025-02-19 04:28:56 +0000 UTCHOLY FUCKING SHIT LETS GOOOOOO
Dave Grohl’s Bastard Child (Judah Bailey)
2025-02-19 04:28:41 +0000 UTCSHU!!!!!!!
Noah Teuber
2025-02-19 04:28:35 +0000 UTCLETS FUCKIN GOOOO
Jordan Falduto
2025-02-19 04:28:35 +0000 UTCLETS FUCKIN GOOOO
Dylbun
2025-02-19 04:28:25 +0000 UTC
