Sony’s head of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, talked about everything from PlayStation VR to Sony’s involvement in Shenmue 3. In the recent interview with GameSpot, Yoshida says that his focus is on new projects and games. He says most Sony studios come to him with ideas for projects and he provides feedback. He also discussed several of Sony’s initiatives in detail. They are broken down by topic below.
About the Vita
Yoshida recognizes that Sony hasn’t chosen to emphasize the Vita at its press conferences and public shows. He says this is simply about “the choice of content” at shows. At Paris Games
Week, Sony wanted to prioritize on games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR. He points out that there were vitas on the show floor, and mentions upcoming small indie games like Severed, Nuclear Throne, and Volume.
“We could have used the event to talk about our new online services. Or the PS4's new system features. There are many things we're working on that we didn't have time for. I mean the conference we had was already at 90 minutes, and that is as much as people will be able to kind of stay focused. So we really wanted to prioritise on games we have on PS4 and PlayStation VR.”
He says that he has been honest in saying the majority of Sony’s first-party development focus has shifted to PS4 and PlayStation VR. On whether or not he sees the vita business continuing in the next year and beyond: “Yeah, I do, I do, but we have to see… as long as there is demand, why not?”
PlayStation VR’s Progress and Lack of Release Date
Yoshida says they aren’t ready for a date and price, but the hardware is “going pretty well,” and that it is “pretty much done.” Yoshida says Sony is working to finish and continually improve the system software and the SDK. We recently learned from a presentation at the Unite Boston 2015 conference that the PSVR headset will come with an external processing unit to offload strain on the PS4. He says it’s better for VR creators, like Valve and Oculus, to take their time, because when the products are released for consumers, they need to be of high quality. Because the hardware is finalized, perhaps we can hope to see PSVR release sometime next year or early 2017?
On the Last Guardian
Sony revealed at E3 this year that The Last Guardian, long dogged by rumors of internal studio strife and setbacks, will release for the PS4. Gameplay was shown, but no release date has yet been given.
When asked about the game’s progress, Yoshida said: “Well, development is going well, but because it's about the story, we don't want to show too much. We wanted to show that it exists, it works, it runs. It's not like we won't show anything before launch, but I think we will try to limit what we show about the game.”
Is Sony helping fund and publish Shenmue 3?
Yoshida confirms that SCEA has a deal with Yu Suzuki-san’s company, to “support in various ways.” However, he does not define this as funding the game, and that it’s the independent studio’s project. He points out that the studio has crowd-funded the title and has investors helping as well. He also mentions that SCEA and SCEE have made deals with indie developers before about console exclusivity and timed exclusivity, and that the studio has announced the game will come to PC, implying that this arrangement is not much different than the many others Sony had made with indie developers before.
