Shuhei Yoshida: A Future Dominated By Service Games Would Be 'Boring'

Unchained

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Throughout the whole interview, Yoshida's appreciation for creativity is evident. Towards the end, he touches on the future of gaming in general: "The industry keeps growing and growing, and I hope it keeps supporting and chasing creative ideas and people who try to work on new things."

But what does Yoshida think about the broader industry, and the approach of big publishers? He doesn't go into too much detail, but this closing quote sums things up quite nicely: "You don’t want to see the Top 10 games every year being almost the same, all games becoming service games... That would be a bit boring, for me.”

Of course, it's worth pointing out that PlayStation itself currently has a number of live service projects in the works. And while we seriously doubt that Yoshida is having a cheeky dig, it's clear that he doesn't want every studio going down the same road — and we're certainly inclined to agree.
 

nongkris

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I'm sorry but with AAA singleplayer games taking 5 years just to make, i'm fine with a well made service game that receives frequent updates. I'm not trying to get old while I wait for the sequel to my favorite game. See how many opdates and graphical upgrades that Fortnite has gotten just from being service game. Sony just needs to combine their singleplayer strength with the service model, something that GTA online and Destiny get.
 

SLB1904

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I'm sorry but with AAA singleplayer games taking 5 years just to make, i'm fine with a well made service game that receives frequent updates. I'm not trying to get old while I wait for the sequel to my favorite game. See how many opdates and graphical upgrades that Fortnite has gotten just from being service game. Sony just needs to combine their singleplayer strength with the service model, something that GTA online and Destiny get.
Nah. There are some people like me that feels like missed the bandwagon on these service games. I don't touch any of the current live service games. Destiny 2 I got at launch bit I don't feel like playing the expansion but I would play destiny 3.
Games should have beginning and ending. This never ending crap is trash
 

nongkris

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Nah. There are some people like me that feels like missed the bandwagon on these service games. I don't touch any of the current live service games. Destiny 2 I got at launch bit I don't feel like playing the expansion but I would play destiny 3.
Games should have beginning and ending. This never ending crap is trash
Agreed there is room for both, but a well made service game ala GTA online is indistinguishable from its singleplayer counterpart. Same mission types, custscnes, quality motion capture, you just don't have to wait a decade for the next game to come out.
 

Wraith Phantom

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And that's why he is Goated.
The Best Goat GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 
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Reassuring considering what few new 1P game announcements (& a couple leaks) we've gotten for the past few months have been live-service games.

I don't have a problem with them in and of themselves; SF6 is basically a live-service game and I'll be playing that a lot. But historically live-service games haven't done a lot to move things forward in terms of creativity and artistry, that's not what they're really built for.
 
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Killer_Sakoman

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I'm sorry but with AAA singleplayer games taking 5 years just to make, i'm fine with a well made service game that receives frequent updates. I'm not trying to get old while I wait for the sequel to my favorite game. See how many opdates and graphical upgrades that Fortnite has gotten just from being service game. Sony just needs to combine their singleplayer strength with the service model, something that GTA online and Destiny get.
Capcom can release a resident evil game almost every 2 years. Others taking long because they all are chasing useless open world 200 hours long games.
 
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Zzero

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While he's right, but its also not like he's signaling that that actually is the future, or even the present. Gaming has, so far in its history, been largely additive. New things come in but old things never entirely go away. I welcome service games as an addition to, but not a supplanter of, the general gaming market. And its not like they're dominant either, think of it like MMOs, mobile, FPSes, 3D platformers, 2D mascot games or any other historic trend. Soon enough there'll be a few big ones at the top, a few small players and not much desire to go all in on it.
 

nongkris

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Capcom can release a resident evil game almost every 2 years. Others taking long because they all are chasing useless open world 200 hours long games.
Capcom is remake city, which is what gaming has turned into now to shorten dev times. RE7 to RE8 is longer than 2 years. I'm clocking out of gaming soon if every game not named COD takes 4+ years to be released. Sony is severely lacking in multiplayer/live service games. Xbox completely owns them in that aspect.
 

Mild Conviction

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I will never trade any of my favorite single-player games for even the best live service games, even if it means waiting six to eight years for the next installment.

The only exception would be live service games that are still so extremely story-focused, they could be considered single-player games that are coincidentally online. Final Fantasy XIV is the prime example; it's an MMO, but I play it exclusively for the narrative because it's so insanely good.

I've played some live service games besides FFXIV before. I've put hundreds of hours into a few of them, such as Warframe (about 450 hours, if I remember correctly). The cool new features being added periodically were the carrot on the stick that kept me chasing, but when I finally walked away, all I felt was like I wasted my time on a game caught up in shoving new mechanics and systems into the experience without putting any effort into making them function with past mechanics to make an actual, cohesive whole.

Live service games have a place as experiences to return to on occasion, or as an option for playing with friends, but they will never, ever replace a carefully and passionately constructed single-player experience made with a very specific vision in mind.
 

Killer_Sakoman

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Capcom is remake city, which is what gaming has turned into now to shorten dev times. RE7 to RE8 is longer than 2 years. I'm clocking out of gaming soon if every game not named COD takes 4+ years to be released. Sony is severely lacking in multiplayer/live service games. Xbox completely owns them in that aspect.
RE2 and 3 were almost entirely new games. And the main team developed DMC5 after RE7 before moving to RE2 remake. RE8 came 2 years after RE2 from the same team. Then they remade RE4 which was also heavily redesigned.

Developers can make games within 2-3 years, but most of them are chasing open world and really long games with infinate side quests.
 

nongkris

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This is the one time I can thank Sony for delegating Shu to irrelevancy through his Indie games promotion. imagine a world where Sony kept going with Mag, or Socom, or warhawk. They could've nurtured so many multiplayer franchises by now. Jim Ryan seems to be trying to right that ship with the horizon online, and tlou factions coming soon. I just hope these games play to the storytelling strengths of their studios and aren't just dead pvp modes like destruction all stars.