Big news came out of Sony and Kojima Productions last night, with the console maker confirming that they had made the decision to “step away from collaborating” on PHYSINT, the new stealth action game that was announced to massive fanfare in 2024.
Thankfully this isn’t the end of this spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid, though. Having received word back in June, Kojima has been able to pitch the project to other publishers, eventually finding backing with Xbox, who he is already working with for OD.
It’s unclear what pushed Sony to make this decision, though could be down to the sales performance of Death Stranding 2 on PS5, which is reportedly fairly underwhelming at just 2 million copies sold after the PC release pushed it over the line. It’s somewhat ironic that it’s Xbox picking up the tab considering just how deeply they’ve been cutting the employee counts at their own studios and reconsidering their own third party developing partnerships.
Another side to this is that PHYSINT was part of a wider collaboration with Sony’s music, TV and film productions – the original announcement took place at Colombia Pictures studio lot. Per Xbox’s announcement, they are taking up this mantle as well, and are going to be “collaborating across film and television to bring new stories to broader audiences.”
Here is Sony’s own statement on the matter:
An update from PlayStation Studios: 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.
Our relationship remains strong after three decades of industry-leading, genre-defining creative cooperation, and we look forward to continued close collaboration with Hideo Kojima and his award-winning independent studio in the future.
Kojima himself responded to this:
As confirmed earlier through our official channels, in mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project. PHYSINT is an important project both to me personally and to KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. 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.
The Kojima Productions social media account posted:
Today, we are excited to confirm that our journey with PHYSINT continues with Asha and the team at XBOX. XBOX understands and shares our bold creative vision, and this expands our relationship with XBOX beyond OD. As we move forward with the development of PHYSINT, we remain committed to redefining the action-espionage genre for players around the world.
Sucks for PlayStation fans, great news for Xbox gamers, and PC gamers are sitting pretty off to the side. Chances are Kojima wanted to publish PHYSINT on PC anyway, similar to Death Stranding, but now it will be day and date on PC.
Source: social media, Xbox, press release
