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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
Deutschbag
Great interview. So many insights!
Tyler Lindbeck
More please!!!
Aaron Barstow
Colin is the man, great job
Chase Carter
Awesome interview
Draven E.
😂 would be great though! Also Shu has worked with Jaffe a ton I’m sure lol
Ahlickaloo
You don’t wanna scare the innocent Japanese man
Draven E.
We need Shu x Jaffe x Moriarty!! Make it happen!!
Jonny Sousa
This doesn't show up on my RSS feed. That's really annoying.
Ahlickaloo
But are they probing like Colin Moriarty?
NecrumOddBoy
Colin rules! Breaking down walls and bringing the best content
Drew Hilliard
This was a GREAT interview.
Colin Kolhoven
Such a fantastic interview and conversation , thank you!!
Mike Moran
That 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!
Jerry Flowers III
Absolutely agree on ~15 hour games. Don't need every game to be 35+ hours. Longer games also largely kill replayablility.
Lucas Hixon
I 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
Christopher Hoff
Excellent interview. You two have good chemistry, he seemed relaxed.
Powerage
Loved this conversation with Shuhei. What an awesome guy. Thanks, Colin, for coming up with great questions.
SIR_K_Daddy
I love how excited Yoshida San was to talk with Colin. Calling out the "Colin Moriarty" questions
PairOfShuse
This was a fun episode and a great interview.
Robbie Cooper
Hands down, my favorite episode you have done yet. Guys like Shu and Cerny are fascinating people and love listening to them. Great job!
Billy Wright
Finally 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.
Nicholas Renaud
This is awesome! Great work.
Declan McIntyre
Awesome episode. Great work Colin and team!
OnyxOsprey
Yeah, 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.
Carlos
Amazing interview
Trevor Myers
If/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?
NeO JD
Great interview. Long overdue. ❤️
Shane Bailey
Excellent 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.
Derek Williams
Excellent 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.
Spencer Young
That was amazing ❤️🤘🏻
The Rose Experience
I’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.
Billy Wright
I 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.
Joshua
Yeah 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.
Michael Welter
I'm glad that from what I've seen most websites are actually linking back to the source.
Child Aloy
lmao someone else had my exact thought
Child Aloy
I feel like that may be what Matty and Cog pivot to.
Hustle&Motiv8
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Bartevious
Wow. Cool shit man. Hell yea.
Samurai Costanza
🫱🏽🫲🏼
Christian Montes
I never comment but damn what a great interview. Happy to see you reunited with an old friend, Colin.
Matt
Colin, 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.
Zachary Abell
I 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.
Brenden
Cute ass lil Japanese guy 😊
Frank
Thank you for this!
Aswad Charles
🐐
Michael Mashpotato
Amazing job Colin! You make it extremely easy to pledge money to LSM.
Noah Trujillo
It’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.
james glenn roten
Yeeessss! SHUUUUUU!!!!
Jdummann92
Thanks for changing your mind on this - it is something we definitely wanted!
Michael Mashpotato
🐐
Gareth Handa
Wow Colin! This is big! Not just because it’s Shu, but you’re asking decent questions!
Singing Fugu Fish
LSM has been the best it’s ever been lately. Just started listening, great start to my work day.
Breno Bezerra Bluhm
Are you kidding me? Absolute BANGER
Robin Meyer
Let's gooooooo
Jeffrey Petrie
Excellent!
Chris Smith
W
Tanner Denso
The only shu interview I wanna hear.
ThroatCoatGoat
Getting my $5 worth hell yeah brother
lazer_josh
Whaaaat?! Sick dude!
John
WHOAAAAAA!!! Colin’s “don’t announce until it drops” mantra is great
Otacon_Ocelot
Hell yeah Collin best fucking podcast network ever. 👏👏👏
Chris's Closeted Weeabo Side
My man really dropping one of th hypest interviews when I'm asleep🔥
oh that pesky dna
Colin M absolute GOAT move, can’t wait for this.
Damien Groome
Can't wait to listen to this today!
Joe Perez
Awesome, Colin! 🤙
Nick Vieu
What a legend. Shu is the GOAT and Congrats to Last Stand for getting him in.
Sween flossing with his own entire body
I’m so excited to hear this. I’m about to begin. Shuhei is one of my all time favorite Japanese people. #JapaneseMtRushmore
NorthOfAmerica
Awesome interview. Love Shuhei!
StewDog
I love a good surprise!
Jamie Hexum
Congrats, Colin. You deserve the big gets.
Robbie Agnew
Wow he did the thing! Good job Shu
Link
Excellent interview, I really wish it didn’t keep me up until 3:00am though.
Luke Knockton
Props for this team , great content
Eric Bolella
Colin “the hammer” Moriarty
Deemac
Hell yeah, Shu is a real one. Glad to see you got an interview with him so quick
Marco Maluf
Yoshida san is a legend!
Gabriel Baker
Shuhei spending the holidays with both of his divorced dads
Ross Stoddart
This is awesome! Can’t wait!
Michael Caswell
Holy moly! What a get!
Link
Awesome get Colin, congrats!
Hector Salcido
I’m so happy this happened, redemption.
JP Morris
Colin did it!!
Mike R
Awesome!
Ulziidamba Enkhsaikhan
Amazing. Thank you
Aaron
Shu has been doing the rounds at many outlets
Mattveego
Fuck yes Colin thank you!
Drew Agnew
Couldn’t click that notification fast enough!
Shadi Haddad
COLIN YOU LEGEND! This is incredible. It's like listening to two friends reunite after so long
Moi
HOLY SHIT
FoundWaldo
Yuhhhh
mattyboy316
This is awesome colin thank you for this interview with shuhei!!
Brandon Tyler
Woj bomb
Pianopower
Wtf this was NOT on my bingo card
ajwhite
I 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!
Nick La Creta
Bro!!!!
Michael Hobbs
Holy fucking shit. This is dope. Congrats.
Andre Ordonez
Wow
Jimbo
Just let me be a homer
Daniel E
lol, how is this a one up? Shu has been on KF and MinnMax. If anything it’ll make for another interesting conversation
Ryan Taylor
Oh hell yes.
UnchartedShinobi
Let’s go!! 🤘🏼
Waqar Uddin
I cannot wait for what will be the best interview with Shu yet. Oh my God.
Jacob Lewis
Was not expecting this.
Nat Patterson
You got the GOAT
Cedric S
I never thought you'd get a (former) PlayStation executive on your show. Bravo sir, I'm looking forward to listening to this interview
Seth Zentner
Oh shit
Digital-Bath
Amazing, looking forward to listening to this one!
Bryan Juarez
Wow I never thought it would happen
Casey Weinmann
I was wondering why patreon was notifying me at this time of night. HELL YES!
Collin Sparling
I had to do a double take when I saw my notifications. Stoked!!!
Jimbo
LSM one upping Kinda Funny? Gotta love it
Alec Rock
AYOOOOO. That notification caught me way off guard lmao good shit, Colin.
Greg Shapiro
Just dropping bombs randomly in classic Colin fashion. Love it!
Cameron
Different type of late night snack.
Michael Welter
WHAAAAT LETS GO
Adam Razak
YOOOOOOOO
Dillan Bhikha
This feels like a dream
Tanner Brant
Wooooo Shu!
ShinyRyuji
What
Stephen Hunter Strong
Yo delivering the GOODS
Dennis
Whoa
Geoff
HOLY FUCK
Wirrie-san
Nice one, Colin!!!
AL022
YESSSSSSSS
Trevor Myers
Hell Ya!!!!!
Kevin Diaz
LETS GOOOOOOOOOO
Dave Grohl’s Bastard Child (Judah Bailey)
HOLY FUCKING SHIT LETS GOOOOOO
Noah Teuber
SHU!!!!!!!
Jordan Falduto
LETS FUCKIN GOOOO
Dylbun
LETS FUCKIN GOOOO
