Shuhei Yoshida Sees Gaming's Future As Indie, Not "Generic" AAA Games

PlayStation icon Shuhei Yoshida estimates that each year, he plays at least 250 games, if not more. For him, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. According to Yoshida, the best part about playing that many games is that he gets to see a slew of different titles evolve over the course of their development. The downside, however, is that playing that many games in a year means very few of them can be AAA games. "I no longer play AAA games because they take too much time," he says.

Indie Gaming Versus AAA

One of the last AAA games Yoshida played was Ghost of Yotei, spurred by his previous involvement with Ghost of Tsushima, but he wasn't able to finish it. He's since moved on to Nioh 3 after loving the previous two installments, but it's simply hard to find the time.

Though he makes occasional time-consuming exceptions for AAA titles, Yoshida is a strong believer in indie game superiority because of their firmer creative resolve. "You can feel the game developer's vision in indie games because indie game developers don't have to ask for approvals," Yoshida says. "I used to work at a large company at PlayStation, and even though we are allowed to have the developer and studio propose what games to make, there are many people involved."

"It's really hard to tell who is the creator of a AAA game," Yoshida continues. "Maybe Kojima-san is an exception, or maybe Miyazaki-san--you can tell it's their visions [when you play] their games, but most other AAA [games] are a group vision. It's not one person's vision."

A large budget also means that it's a necessity that the game is liked by a large number of people, which comes at the expense of individuality. "We make the game, polish the game, but it becomes a bit more generic," he says. "Publishers tend to go safe. When they pick the genre or subject, the marketing team say, 'Well, this never worked. There's only a small audience.'"

Yoshida believes that indie developers, on the other hand, just want to bring their vision to life. "They are very excited about this certain subject, even though no one seems to be interested in the subject at the time, but after three years, that might become the latest and the most exciting thing," Yoshida says. In this way, Yoshida believes indie developers can lead the entire industry. "The AAA studios are big fans of many of these game designers and look at indie games for inspiration, and so the indie games play a really important role for the whole industry to keep innovating."

During his time at PlayStation, Yoshida encountered many instances of playing it safe, interfering with what he viewed as creative potential. One instance in particular sticks out to him: the rhythm games Frequency and Amplitude, which were produced by Harmonix, the developer that would eventually go on to create the Guitar Hero franchise.

"I was in love with that game. The core gameplay was there already, but the game felt a bit artificial looking and didn't sell well, but I felt there's something in there, and I wanted to continue to work with Harmonix. Our business marketing side allowed us to do Amplitude after Frequency, even though Frequency didn't sell, but after Amplitude didn't sell again, I was not allowed to continue on that path. And, after a couple of projects, Harmonix hit a home run with Guitar Hero."

The Past, Present, & Future of Gaming

Since Yoshida first joined Sony in 1986, the gaming industry has seen a number of sizable shifts, the biggest of which is his opinion has been the availability of digital distribution, particularly for indie developers. "Before that," he says, "there's only packaged goods, whether it's a disc-based product or cartridge-based product, and typically requires a publisher with some cash available to be able to publish a game."

With the rise of online access to games through storefronts like Steam and the PlayStation Network, any developer can also be a publisher. "This democratization of game development and publishing has had the biggest impact on the video game industry, I think," says Yoshida.

When I asked his thoughts on how some physical media is now being phased out almost entirely--a trend which physical collectors often despise--he's optimistic on the topic. "Of course, more and more people just buy games digitally, but some people like to collect the physical goods in the package," Yoshida says, "and developers are especially excited to have their games in the package."

"I heard that the volume of production for physical games has consistently come down, but the number of games being published physically is actually increasing," Yoshida continues. "There are more games, and more indie publishers who specialize in publishing the games in a smaller lot, so people are seeing many different kinds of collectors' editions or special editions for their games."

Yoshida predicts this uptick in overall game releases will only continue, both because of the aforementioned democratization of game publishing and an increase in options that make it easier for anyone to become a creator. Yoshida points to game-making tools like those inside Roblox or Fortnite as examples of making the act of creation more accessible to anyone. "That means the number of games being published will just keep going up," he said. "With that volume, in my belief, the top quality will constantly go up, so that's a good thing."

However, he thinks that volume also poses a problem for indie developers. "Because of that amount of games being produced," Yoshida says, "it becomes even harder to get the games noticed." It's already a big challenge for smaller projects, but it's his belief it will become even harder in the future. Because of this, Yoshida predicts that the role of indie publishers like Kepler or Fictions will become even more important.

When I ask him how future indie projects can stand out, Yoshida points to community as the biggest asset. "Indies who have had success before find it much easier to find an audience," he says, "because you have a following, and oftentimes the developers have a direct connection with their audience. I think it's very important for any indies to be able to think about their audience and have means to communicate with them, and create and grow the community and following."

"[A community] will become the advocates of your games, and they become the early testers of your [future] games," Yoshida continues, "When your games are successful, they will feel that they are part of the success, so they will become even more passionate about supporting you--it's very, very important to have a strong sense of community support."

Yoshida's Admiration for Orbitals, Kepler, & Co-Op

Since he went independent after parting ways with PlayStation last year, Shuhei Yoshida doesn't get a lot of downtime. Recently, he's been spending many of those rare moments of relaxation playing Orbitals with his daughter. In a way that's still work for the industry titan, who now serves as an advisor to the game's publisher, Kepler Interactive, but--according to him--he's been having too much fun to notice.

Yoshida has known the folks at Kepler Interactive for a long time, even going back to Kowloon Nights, a video gaming investment fund established in 2017 that eventually partnered with the publisher. Their relationship first formed out of Yoshida being what he calls an "evangelist for indie games for PlayStation," necessitating that he work closely with indie companies like Kepler. "The [Kepler team] are great, and I really respect them," Yoshida told me, "and I was very happy that they asked me to become an advisor. "

Orbitals is the third co-op only game Yoshida and his daughter have embarked on--the other two being It Takes Two and Split Fiction. He really admires the flexibility the new anime adventure game brings to the table. Unlike the aforementioned Hazelight games, players have the option in Orbitals to select their own tools instead of being locked into a role based on the character they've chosen. "For every challenge," he says, "it's interchangeable."

Though communication has always been a given for the co-op genre, Yoshida finds the way Orbitals implements it to be his favorite part of the game. "Constantly, you have to talk to the other person to coordinate what you do, the timing [of an action], or which way you should go. That collaboration is a bigger challenge than actual platforming or puzzle solving--that's the aspect I like most about Orbitals."

A Day in the Life of Yoshida

At Kepler Interactive and beyond, much of Yoshida's day-to-day work now involves playing video games. At Kepler, he's a part of their weekly meetings about new game submissions. "Because they are becoming more and more popular as a publisher," Yoshida says, "they receive so many submissions from indie developers. Every week, Kepler has a team to go through these submissions and pick up some of the most high-potential games for us to play and discuss."

Yoshida has also taken on an advisor role for Fictions, a publisher formed by much of the former Annapurna Interactive team. "The core members--the founders of Annapurna Interactive, now at Fictions--used to work for me at Santa Monica Studios, and they are producers for games like Journey or What Remains of Edith Finch, so I've known them for the longest time," he says.

He doesn't keep his advice exclusively for those who have hired him as an advisor, either, often picking up the games of random developers he's met at events to offer his assistance. "I always offer for them to send me the games in development, and when I have time, I play and give them feedback. I enjoy that--it's not official work, but I just like to do it for all these developers. I spend, I think, a couple of hours a day doing that."

Yoshida's screen time is further amplified by his commitment to various trade show events and award shows, where he's frequently asked to be a judge. Throughout the year, whether it's the Tokyo Indie Game Summit or Gamescom LATAM, he'll be sent 20 or 30 games at a time as part of his role on various juries, playing through them all and doling out scores. "Oftentimes," he says, "I attend the event and hand out the award, and it's very fun."

One of his biggest undertakings is helping to determine the Selected Indie 80 for Tokyo Game Show, where 80 independent games are given a kiosk for free. With submissions from all over the world, last year the team of judges Yoshida was a part of wound up with over 1,500 submissions. "There are too many," he says, "and most of the time we have to watch the gameplay video and select, because there are so many games, and many are good."

Already so enmeshed with the indie gaming space through his career endeavours, particularly since pivoting away from PlayStation, Yoshida is certainly cementing his self-proclaimed title of "indie evangelist" with both developers and their community.