PlayStation doesn’t have a mascot as such, even if there are plenty of contenders – Nathan Drake, Sackboy or maybe even just Toro the cat – but none of them can really hold a candle to Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios who’s become the friendly face of PlayStation in recent years. This week at Develop in Brighton, he took to the stage with the dashingly handsome Edge editor Nathan Brown to talk through his 25 years at the company, and some of the difficulties faced in the various hardware transitions PlayStation has seen over the years.
Yoshida started his tenure at PlayStation in February 1993, working as part of the small team led by Ken Kutaragi that was behind the original hardware. “[At the time there was a] Silicon Graphics workstation, which was around $100k – and Ken said he’s making a machine of that power that’ll be available for less than $500,” Yoshida recounted onstage. At first Yoshida didn’t believe that was possible, but when someone told him Kutaragi wasn’t full of hot air he decided to sign up to the project.
Those early years saw Yoshida and those around him sign some deals that would be pivotal in the success of the PlayStation – and in sowing the seeds for future generations – as Square was convinced to move away from Nintendo and bring Final Fantasy 7 to Sony, with Enix soon following suit with the Dragon Quest series. Yoshida himself also found himself working in a producer role on games such as Crash Bandicoot and the first two Motor Toon Grand Prix games from a certain Polyphony Digital – which would then go on to make Gran Turismo, another game that proved instrumental in the PlayStation’s early success.
Source: Eurogamer "PlayStation 4 is doing so well – we don't forget why we're here now"