DICE 2015: PlayStation Boss 'Hates' Annualized Franchises, Discusses the Console's History
During a panel at the 2015 DICE Summit, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida shared some strong opinions on annualized franchises.
According to Yoshida, the expectations and goals of both marketing teams and game developers can sometimes be hard to align. Marketing and sales people are very profit-driven, which can foster a misunderstanding of situations such as game delays or sequels.
In the early days of PlayStation, sequels were often seen as a wasted expense that rarely saw returns on the same level of the originals. Thus, the idea of putting them out seemed risky to the more financial-driven teams.
However, Yoshida explained that once marketing teams saw how they could benefit from year-after-year sequels and releases, they began to push for more. This became a tricky situation, however, once game development cycles began to grow longer and longer.
Marketing executives, he said, don't understand the development process as well, which leads them to draw comparisons to franchises such as Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. Both see annual releases each year and tend to make a profit with few exceptions.
But it doesn't always work that way, Yoshida explained, adding that, with all due respect to the developers of these franchises, he "hates" annualized releases and wish they didn't happen.
Yoshida also spoke a bit about PlayStation's history, even explaining where the company gets its name.
Being that Sony wanted to market the PlayStation toward a more adult audience, the decision was made to call the company Sony Computer Entertainment rather than Sony Game Entertainment.
Marketing toward adults was not the only thing separating PlayStation from the rest of the industry, however. Yoshida also mentioned that Sony's emphasis on 3D graphics, proper animations, and the use of a disc over a cartridge helped pave the way for PlayStation's success, despite industry-wide skepticism.
Yoshida closed out by discussing the launch of the PlayStation 4, acknowledging some of the console's struggles over the past few months. He specifically points to game launch difficulties, delays, and the massive DDoS attack on the PlayStation Network as some of the more egregious problems that "keep (him) up at night."
Yoshida said Sony put tremendous resources in hardware and software development, but admitted it didn't put the same emphasis on network development. He said that will continue to be a focus for the future.
To learn more from this panel, read up on why Oddworld moved exclusively to Xbox at one point.
You can also read IGN's analysis of the PlayStation 4 one year after launch. 
Cassidee is a freelance writer for various outlets around the web. You can chat with her about all things geeky on Twitter.
