Shuhei Yoshida is no longer with Sony Interactive Entertainment, after nearly three decades with PlayStation and the world of video games. The industry will always remember him as an outspoken and affable man who always fought for the interest in games and, in recent years, for promoting and pushing indies.
However, with retirement has also come some veiled criticisms of the company, such as the decision to relegate Yoshida to a "minor" role, his criticism of PlayStation VR2 and the reasons for the failure of PS Vita. Be that as it may, Yoshida continues to share his knowledge.
And recently, he has solved a question about how certain titles are called internally at Sony. According to Last Stand Media's interview with Yoshida on Patreon, this is how Sony distinguishes games on the platform:
First party: Sony-owned IP published by SIE, including Sony IP games developed by external companies.
Second party: Games funded/co-funded and published by SIE, but the IP is not owned by Sony.
Third-party exclusives: Exclusive titles not published by SIE. PlayStation refers to these as "partner titles".
So some examples of First party would be Helldivers 2 or Returnal; Second Party: Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, Nioh, and Third party games (but exclusive on PS) the Final Fantasy VII Remake or FF XVI titles.
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