The Vergecast · Sep 28, 2026 · 44m · 32m saved
With Shuhei Yoshida, Former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios
Shuhei Yoshida said few players and few developers are asking for more powerful game hardware, so Sony and Nintendo should keep the current generation of consoles going as long as they can.
Console makers usually sell each generation on a jump in power. With component prices rising faster than other entertainment, he said, owners of a PS5, a Switch 2 or a decent gaming PC will mostly be happy to keep what they have.
"I don't think lots of people are asking for more power."
Shuhei Yoshida, the former head of Sony's worldwide game studios, on The Vergecast, spent 31 years at PlayStation. He ran Sony's internal studios from 2008 to 2019, then led its work with independent developers until he left in January 2025. He still works in the industry and advises indie developers.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 44 minutes of audio, 12 minutes of reading.
Here are the 12 predictions that matter.
Key Takeaways
AI tools let a single designer make a whole game, which is good for players and hard on people who make a living from games
One Asian indie founder manages eight AI agents and may buy tokens instead of hiring
The Switch sold because it is a hybrid, not because it is portable
Sony's studios were not allowed to port big first-party games to PC in the PS4 era, and he thinks the platform side is winning that argument again
Running two platforms splits a fixed budget, which is why PlayStation VR and the Vita got fewer games
A console subscription of around $50 a month is one way Xbox could price a very expensive machine
Cloud games that need servers always ran into the same question: who pays for them
Mobile will not replace PC and console, mainly because of controls
1. More Players, Harder Living
The host asked where the industry is heading. Yoshida said more people play games almost every year, on more devices and in more countries, and that digital distribution and free tools such as Unity let anyone with a PC make a game.
AI brings in more creators
AI tools are adding even more game makers, he said. Friends who are strong in design and art have told him they can now build games alone.
"They tell me they can now make games by themselves by using AI coding." — Shuhei Yoshida
That means more kinds of games for players, he said.
"But, it could be challenging time for all the game creators who want to make living by making games." — Shuhei Yoshida
