PlayStation will no longer partner with Hideo Kojima on Physint, the game director’s return to the action-espionage genre that made his name. In a stunning turn of events, the Metal Gear Solid spiritual sequel has switched sides and landed at Xbox.
Kojima said that the move happened as a result of PlayStation “unexpectedly” canceling the game in June, prompting his studio, Kojima Productions, to scramble for a new partner.
“In mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project,” Kojima said on X. “Determined to keep the project alive, we have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner. In the course of seeking advice and pursuing negotiations with people across many fields, we found in XBOX a partner with whom we share a common vision for the future, and we have decided to team up with them once again. Please rest assured that development of PHYSINT, our genre-defining action-espionage title, is ongoing and will continue moving forward.”
Kojima’s next game, the mysterious horror title OD, is already lined up at Xbox. According to Variety, conversations between Kojima and new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma have been ongoing since Sharma took over in February, with a focus on collaborating on TV and film as well as games. Xbox’s announcement that it has picked up Physint noted that Xbox and Kojima Productions will collaborate “across film and television to bring new stories to broader audiences.”
“Creators have choices about where and how they bring their ideas to life,” Sharma said in a statement. “We’re honored that Kojima-san has chosen XBOX to work with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on PHYSINT. His ambition to challenge conventions reflects the kind of creativity we want to support at XBOX.”
In its own statement on X, PlayStation said: “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT. We continue to have great admiration for Hideo Kojima’s vision for the game.” PlayStation claimed its relationship with Kojima “remains strong” and it looked forward to “continued close collaboration” with the director.
Sony’s strong link with Kojima extends back to Metal Gear Solid‘s debut on PlayStation in 1998, and the platform holder was Kojima Productions’ first partner after the studio went independent, publishing Death Stranding and its sequel as timed exclusives for PS4 and PS5. The partnership on Physint was splashily announced by Sony in early 2024.
But Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has likely disappointed Sony. Analysts estimate the game’s sales at 2 million copies, 1.6 million of them on PS5; Death Stranding sold 5 million copies in a similar timeframe, and “reached” 19 million players over five years. Sony may have been frustrated that many of these players arrived via other platforms — Death Stranding was briefly free to download on the Epic Games Store, and was also available for a spell on Game Pass.
Kojima’s games boast starry casts and lavish production values that presumably demand a sizable budget, and the director’s ambition for Physint is that it will be “both a game and a movie at the same time.” Perhaps Sony decided that its investment in Kojima’s vision was no longer worth the price tag.
However, PlayStation’s loss of Physint to a competitor is another PR hit for a platform holder that’s currently under siege over its decision to end production of physical PlayStation games. Xbox, currently trying to rehabilitate its own image and recover its position in the console market, has clearly taken the opposite view to its rival and decided that scoring a point in the console wars was worth whatever price Kojima Productions was asking.
