After 31 years, PlayStation icon Shuhei Yoshida is retiring from Sony Entertainment Interactive. The account-executive-turned-SIE-president–who stepped down from his former position back in 2019 in order to helm the company’s Independent Developer Initiative–revealed the news via an interview shared on the official PlayStation Blog. Yoshida’s last day with the company will be January 15, 2025.
“I’ve been with PlayStation from the beginning,” Yoshida told Sony senior communications director Sid Shuman. “When I hit 30 years, I was thinking, ‘Hmm, it may be about time for me to move on.’ You know, the company’s been doing great. I love PS5, I love the games that are coming out on this platform. And we have new generations of management who I respect and admire. And I’m so excited for the future of PlayStation. So you know, PlayStation is in really good hands. I thought, ‘Okay, this is my time.'”
Yoshida joined Sony in 1993 as lead account executive and one of the key members of its PlayStation project. According to Yoshida, he was also the first “non-technical” person aboard the team, and thus played a vital part in bringing the original PlayStation to market. He further elaborated on this in the blog post, stating that his role was largely reaching out to publishers and developers in Japan in hopes of them bringing their games to the PlayStation ecosystem.