PlayStation dropped Hideo Kojima’s Physint because of missed deadlines and budget concerns, according to a report, but will it succeed under Xbox?
Sony’s decision to drop Hideo Kojima’s Physint has been one of several negatives for the company over this past week, along with tepid reviews for Marvel’s Wolverine and the response to Fairgames’ return.
Kojima’s next espionage title, deemed a spiritual successor to Metal Gear, will now be funded by Xbox. It represents Kojima’s second collaboration with Microsoft, following his upcoming horror game OD, which still doesn’t have a release date, despite being announced in 2023.
According to one insider, it seems Kojima’s prolonged development cycles are just one of the reasons why Sony dropped Physint.
An article from Bloomberg suggests that Sony pulled out of Physint due to a mix of budget concerns, the potential profitability of the game, and issues around exclusivity and IP ownership.
Just as fans suspected, the Death Stranding games were apparently a key factor, with both titles described as not meeting PlayStation’s revenue expectations.
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It’s also claimed that Physint had ‘missed deadlines’ already and was ‘on track to be well over budget despite being years away from release’.
Sony was apparently also concerned about investing millions of dollars into another Kojima title that wouldn’t be permanently exclusive to PlayStation consoles – much like both Death Stranding games, which were timed exclusives, with the IP ultimately owned by Kojima.
Sony’s decision to pull away from releasing its games on PC was also described as a key factor, because it wouldn’t earn any money from a PC version of Physint if it was published by Kojima Productions or another company. Under Xbox’s leadership, Physint is set to be released across Xbox and PC, according to the report.
When laid out like that, it’s easy to see why Sony pulled out from a business perspective, especially as it wouldn’t own the IP. In fact, if this is all true, it’s surprising Death Stranding got a sequel at all.
However, if Sony wasn’t happy with the sales of the Death Stranding games, it’s difficult to understand why they agreed to partner with Kojima on Physint in the first place. Death Stranding 2 was released in June last year and Physint was originally announced in 2024, so maybe they expected the sequel to deliver better results.
In a follow-up post on Bluesky, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted that some PlayStation executives who worked ‘closest’ with Kojima in the past are ‘no longer at the company’, so that might explain why they’ve decided to part ways now too.
The big question now is whether Physint will materialise under Xbox, who have shown a complete inability to manage studios over recent years, with a dismal lack of games and a comprehensive list of studio shutdowns.
We still don’t have a release date for OD yet, so don’t expect to see Physint anytime sooner, let alone a release date.
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