Shuhei Yoshida Reflects on 30 Years of Creators at CEDEC 2026 Keynote
Yoshida's stated career stance of always choosing the creator over the IP, revealed during the keynote, offers a rare insider perspective on how PlayStation's first-party strategy balanced creative support against business demands for AAA titles.
Key Facts
- Shuhei Yoshida delivered the keynote "Wonderful Games, Creators, and Their Creativity That I Have Encountered" at CEDEC 2026 on July 22, 2026.
- Yoshida joined Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993 as employee number 32 and left Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2025 to found yosp.
- Yoshida named "Journey" as the title he is most proud of among those he has been involved with.
- Yoshida said the lack of a "Bloodborne" remaster, PC version, or sequel is a "mystery" and hopes a sequel will be made.
- "Beast of Reincarnation," directed by Kota Furushima and published by Fictions, is scheduled for release on August 4, 2026.
Reporting from 2 sources: 4Gamer.net, Game Spark.
At CEDEC 2026 on July 22, 2026, Shuhei Yoshida of yosp delivered a keynote titled "Wonderful Games, Creators, and Their Creativity That I Have Encountered," looking back on roughly 30 years of working with game developers. Yoshida joined Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993 as employee number 32, later led first-party development in the United States, and left Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2025 to found yosp. During the speech, he covered 26 titles, with the latter half introducing 16 co-creation examples from "Gravity Daze" in 2012 to "Beast of Reincarnation" this year. He named "Journey" as the title he is most proud of, citing Jenova Chen's focus on player feelings and a fan message about overcoming grief. Yoshida also discussed "Bloodborne," calling the lack of a remaster, PC version, or sequel a "mystery," and recounted how "Demon's Souls" initially had overseas releases shelved before word of mouth changed that decision. He closed by expressing his intention to continue supporting indie creators worldwide.
- Crash Bandicoot (1996, PS1): Yoshida's first career title, where he served as localization producer for Japan. During pre-release media rounds, Kazuhiko Torishima, then editor-in-chief of V Jump, told him flatly, "This character will never sell in Japan," prompting a redesign of the character and game balance for the Japanese market. The third game in the series went on to sell over one million copies in Japan alone.
- Gran Turismo (1997): Yoshida praised developer Kazunori Yamauchi as "one of the very few people who possess both extremely strong creativity and management skills that can see the whole picture." He revealed the project was initially not approved, and the team pitched it as "We need something like Mario Kart" while actually building a full-fledged car simulation.
- Ape Escape (1999): Yoshida discussed game design that made use of the two analog sticks in conjunction with the release of the DualShock controller.
- ICO (2001): Fumito Ueda presented the project himself via video.
- God of War (2005) and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007): Representative works after Yoshida moved to the United States in 2000. He praised the Uncharted team's approach to achieving both realistic animation expression and control feel.
- Demon's Souls (2009): Yoshida initially thought, "What a difficult game this is," and overseas releases were shelved before word of mouth changed that decision. Regarding the sequel DARK SOULS being released by another company, he laughed that "Overseas fans tease me, saying, 'You didn't understand the value of Demon's Souls, did you?'" but also reflected, "It might have been good that we didn't continue."
- LittleBigPlanet (2008) and Dreams Universe: Yoshida introduced Media Molecule's creative corporate culture of "making games like a band session."
- Sound Shapes (2012): Created almost single-handedly by Canadian creator Jessica Mak, Yoshida called it "my favorite game among all titles released on PS Vita."
- The Last Guardian (2016): Released 11 years after Shadow of the Colossus, the game was initially developed for PS3 but "did not perform at all" on that hardware, so the move to PS4 was decided behind the scenes. Yoshida said, "not just Ueda," but "game creators can always see the flaws in what they are making," and the team continued discussing both the "bug fix list" and the "list of things Ueda wants to fix" until just before release.
- Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (2018): Director Nicolas Doucet had long worked on games using camera input before becoming a bridge between PlayStation hardware development and Worldwide Studios in Japan.
- Fall Guys (2020): At release, Yoshida played every morning and recorded only the last minute of his wins to post on social media, "sometimes mixed in videos where he almost won but didn't," keeping followers on edge about whether he got the crown.
- Ghost of Tsushima (2020): Sucker Punch Productions proposed a game set in Japan with visuals like the Japanese films they love, but worried Japanese players would think they were depicting a strange Japan, so the Japanese localization team cooperated fully. It became the first overseas-produced PlayStation title to sell over one million copies in Japan since Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
- Stray (2022): Based on a promotional video for selling BlueTwelve Studio's assets, showing a cat walking through a cyberpunk-style city resembling Hong Kong. A staff member at Annapurna Interactive suggested making it a game.
- Synapse (2023, PSVR2): Uses the PSVR2's eye-tracking so players aim by looking at a target, lift it with telekinesis, and shoot it with a gun. Yoshida's favorite PSVR2 title.
- Stellar Blade (2024): SIE's third-party relations division asked Yoshida to accompany them to SHIFT UP, where Kim Hyung-tae showed a prototype and said he wanted to release a high-end 3D game on PlayStation. Yoshida recommended the release, and commented, "It turned out as the third-party relations staff had hoped."
- Nine Sols (2024): A Metroidvania strongly influenced by SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE, where players progress by parrying enemy attacks. Yoshida rated it "my favorite title released in 2024."
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025): Created by a team of about 30 staff members, with "even with only four programmers, game designers actively built the gameplay using Unreal Engine's Blueprint feature." Yoshida commented, "Small teams come up with various ideas and make good games."
- Beast of Reincarnation (2026): A new game by Game Freak directed by Kota Furushima, published by Fictions, where Yoshida serves as advisor. He has already played a version equivalent to the final product and said, "If I really could, I would leave this place, go home, and continue playing."
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.