LogInYoshida talks about production costs and AI.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida discussed game production expenses as well as AI and revealed that the company cancels a lot of games.
Yoshida has been a part of the PlayStation team for 30 years now and he can offer a unique perspective on how it operates. He revealed that the company is open to new ideas, but many if them fail, so it has to cancel a lot of games.
“PlayStation embraces new ideas, and many of them fail. We do a prototype, we evaluate, we decide whether to spend more time and resources, or we just stop. We cancel so many games. I usually try to convince the developer that I’m trying to save them from getting stuck with this project … We tend to work with people who have very strong ideas, we love these people, so trying to change or stop their project is so hard. It’s all about talent in this industry. I have tried to help them as much as I could.”
One of the titles that did make it despite the challenges on its way is 2012's Journey, which Yoshida is very proud of, not only because it overcame the odds but also because it had a strong impact on the players.
"You could finish it in four hours but it’s about life and death, and people who have gone through family or close friends passing away could reflect on things they experienced as they played. I am so fortunate to have been involved with it."
Nowadays, PlayStation games also struggle with rising development costs. As pointed out in the article, 2010’s God of War III cost $44 million to make, while PlayStation 5 games like 2022's God of War Ragnarök can cost about $200 million.
At the same time, there are a lot of great indie games without those budgets out there, and while it's hard to get funded and noticed, Yoshida says the industry has to diversify, and it will happen "naturally and organically."
Another question many have to wonder about today is AI and its impact on and role in creating games. Yoshida is not too worried about it replacing humans any time soon, he considers it a tool that someone has to use.
“AI can produce very strange things, as you must have seen. You really have to be able to use the tool well. AI will change the nature of learning for game developers, but in the end development will be more efficient, and more beautiful things will be made by people. People might not even need to learn programming any more, if they have learned how to use these tools of the future. The creativity is more important, the direction, how you envision what you want.”
He concludes by saying the games industry will always be a fun place and its the people that define its future.
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