A new report sheds more light on why Sony and PlayStation dropped Hideo Kojima‘s action-espionage game, Physint, in a high-profile announcement that saw the project handed to Microsoft and Xbox.
Bloomberg, citing several people familiar with the game poised to become the successor to Kojima’s Metal Gear series, reports that Physint had missed production deadlines and is on track to go “well over budget” as it still needs years of work.
With Sony tightening development milestone check-ins after numerous live service games fell through, left gaps in the PS5 release schedule, and even consumed entire studios, this excess has come at a time of increased fiscal stringency, the report adds.
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Further financial concerns stem from the sales and relationship PlayStation saw with Kojima’s two Death Stranding games, which reportedly missed Sony’s targets. With the Death Stranding games ultimately coming to PC at a time when Sony is purportedly backing away from the platform to double down on console exclusivity, a similar timed exclusive deal for Physint is less appealing.
Additionally, Bloomberg notes that many of the PlayStation executives and leaders who’d previously worked closely with Kojima have left the company in recent years, severing a chain of relationships that may have kept Kojima’s work in Sony’s good books.
One clear example would be Andrew House, who, in 2015, first announced PlayStation’s exclusivity deal with Kojima Productions. Physint itself was revealed in 2024 during a PlayStation State of Play showcase.
House left PlayStation in 2017, not long after that deal was struck. If he and others like him were still at PlayStation, conversations and arrangements around Kojima’s games may be quite different and Physint may still be greenlit, if not more heavily centered as a tentpole PlayStation game.
As news of the split broke, Kojima said “we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project,” sending him and Kojima Productions seeking a new partner to salvage the game.
It found one in Xbox, with new CEO Asha Sharma happy to pick up Physint in “a big moment for Xbox” and in the latest reversal for two platform holders which have long had a clear market winner. The PS5 remains far ahead in console sales compared to the Xbox Series X, but Sony seems hellbent on giving Microsoft every opportunity to recover.
A Microsoft spokesperson tells Bloomberg that “betting on Kojima-san is an easy call.”
Microsoft was already working with Kojima on OD, which it has backed since the game’s 2023 reveal during The Game Awards. Kojima said the pitch for OD was “crazy” and Xbox, then led by Phil Spencer, was basically the only receptive client.
Sharma, Spencer’s replacement, has said OD is a “deeply moving game” and “represents another kind” of experience.
