Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida: “I canceled so many games” — including a new God of War IP from Santa Monica Studio; “a $25 million cancellation is nothing special”

Earlier this year former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida said he had shut down two projects after roughly $25 million had already been spent. He has since identified those cancellations — one of them appears to be the long-rumoured sci‑fi project developed internally by the God of War studio.

“One was actually an internal game developed by Santa Monica Studio,” Yoshida explains on the latest episode of Simon Parkin’s My Perfect Console podcast. “It wasn’t a God of War title — it was a new IP. The concept was striking and the design ideas were intriguing. Santa Monica are exceptionally skilled at crafting high-quality art, and we supported the team for many years. But after $25 million they came to me and said they had to stop. I don’t recall all the details, but the team couldn’t find the core game. It was a brilliant idea, yet the gameplay never fully materialised.”

Yoshida was president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, and he doesn’t specify exactly when this new IP was in production. While Santa Monica occasionally supports other projects, the studio’s primary team has focused on God of War since 2005.

Yoshida says cancelling projects is common at Sony, but he normally aimed to stop them long before such large sums were committed. “I’ve cancelled many games,” he says. “Most people don’t know about them because we cut them early — prototype, evaluate, then continue or stop. Early cancellations keep costs low. But once a project progresses and a compelling vision takes hold, pulling the plug after $25 million becomes a much tougher choice. In this case the Santa Monica team themselves concluded it was best to halt.”

The other project Yoshida referenced was a large-budget effort at one of Sony’s European studios. He offers fewer specifics about that title, saying only that although Europe produces many excellent games, this particular project — also roughly $25 million in — lacked a clear core gameplay loop and was cancelled for similar reasons. “Those are the two major cancellations,” he adds. “These days, a $25 million cancellation isn’t unheard of.”

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