Hideo Kojima has spoken publicly for the first time about the change of publishing partner for Physint, and the story starts with a single Zoom call. In June, Sony Interactive Entertainment asked for a meeting. Kojima brought Kojima Productions president Shinji Hirano and head of talent development Aki Saito along with him. The message was short: PlayStation would no longer fund Physint, the spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid. According to Kojima, his mind went blank and he barely remembers the rest of the conversation.
“They said they can no longer fund development for Physint. I was shocked and I said, ‘What did you say?'” Kojima recalls. He says he felt no anger and no sadness in that moment. His first thought was about his company. We have been tracking the whole affair in our Physint coverage.
Why the cancellation threatened the entire studio
Kojima Productions is independent, with no corporate backing. It signs contracts project by project, and that is how it survives – Kojima says he always has to line up a new project before the previous one wraps. At the time of the call, the studio had exactly two: the Xbox game OD and Physint. Staffing is built around that number.
Losing one contract therefore meant a very concrete set of problems:
- roughly 200 employees, with the headcount expanded specifically because of Physint
- the risk of having to lay off the whole Physint team, or running out of cashflow entirely
- bank loans taken out after the release of Death Stranding – a canceled project could have caused serious trouble with the lender
- actors already scanned for the game and artists already in talks about collaborating
Kojima says he did not want a repeat of the P.T. situation, where people who had already contributed were left with nothing. That is why he initially kept the news to just the three people who had been on the call, until a direction was clear.
A pitch built around an IP, not just a game
Instead of walking around asking publishers to fund a game – an approach he calls old-fashioned – Kojima decided to pitch a new IP designed from the start to span film, drama, anime, TV, comics and music. He considered not only game publishers but also movie studios and streaming companies, arguing that in an all-digital world those industries are converging with games anyway.
He says the reactions were positive across the board, but money alone was not the issue. The studio also needed technical support, marketing, playtesting – things it cannot handle internally. That led him to Xbox, where a working relationship already existed thanks to OD. Kojima says the first reaction to his pitch was: “This pitch was fantastic. Never seen a pitch like this!”
The “common vision” he mentioned publicly comes down to Xbox not thinking about funding a single game, but about building an IP that can extend into movies, anime, music, merchandising and eventually AR. He compares the logic to what Nintendo has done with Mario and Zelda, including live attractions at Universal Studios.
What happened inside the studio
Three days after the Sony meeting, Kojima called in the Physint team leads, explained the situation and told them not to worry because he would find a new partner. He still had to shrink the Physint team and move part of it over to OD. He expected departures – and says nobody left.
Asked whether production stopped, Kojima says it never did. He is still working on the world, game systems, scenario, visuals, design and modeling, still casting and scanning actors, and still experimenting with new technology such as enemy AI, with the story adapting to how those experiments turn out. Only a small core team stayed on Physint; the animation team is mainly on OD, and motion work will change later anyway once performance capture begins. He describes the delay as minor.
The engine question is open. Kojima says he has not decided yet and is still experimenting, noting that Xbox promised substantial technological support – he recalls being stunned by the company’s labs during an earlier visit.
Relationship with PlayStation and the platform question
Kojima insists there is no dispute with Sony. He says nobody from the company has contacted him since the June call, and that no reason for the decision was given then or later. His only complaint is timing: after 30 years of working together, he would have wanted to hear the conclusion earlier rather than as a final notice. He also says he remains a Sony fan personally.
He would not say who delivered the news. Asked whether Physint could still release on PlayStation, Kojima said that is a question for Xbox, noting only that Xbox has previously signaled a desire to reach as many players as possible regardless of platform, and that any announcement would come later.
Kojima also explained where the project came from. After OD was greenlit, he needed a follow-up to Death Stranding 2 and kept seeing requests for another Metal Gear. Metal Gear is Konami’s IP, so he decided to build a new action espionage game instead. He pitched the idea to then-SIE CEO Jim Ryan shortly before Ryan’s retirement, and the partnership started with a handshake – which is part of why the June call hit so hard. Kojima adds that the timing mattered to him personally: it is the studio’s 10th anniversary and his 40th year making games, and after being unwell during the pandemic he decided to pour everything into Physint.
The studio’s official statement
Following a report that linked the cancellation to missed deadlines, budget concerns and the commercial performance of Death Stranding, Kojima Productions issued a statement. The studio says none of those claims came from an official or on-the-record source and urges skepticism. It acknowledges this was a serious situation with potentially significant implications, but states for the record that the studio is “in a healthy, profitable state, development for Physint continues to move forward with Xbox, and our relationship with PlayStation remains strong.”
What it means for you
Practically speaking, Physint is still in development, just under a different publishing partner, and no platform lineup has been confirmed. Kojima says he wants to finish the game first and then expand the IP, ideally shortening the usual gap between a game and its film adaptation. If you want to follow where the project lands next, we keep everything in one place in our news hub.
FAQ
Kojima says Sony gave no reason during the June Zoom call and has not contacted him since. A later report cited deadlines, budget and Death Stranding’s performance, but Kojima Productions says those claims came from no official source.
No. Development continues with Xbox as the new publishing partner, and Kojima says work on the project never actually stopped.
Kojima says that is a question for Xbox and he does not know. He notes Xbox has previously indicated it wants to reach as many players as possible regardless of platform, with announcements to come later.
Kojima had to shrink the Physint team and move some people to OD, but he says nobody left the studio and that the team is around 200 people.
Undecided. Kojima says he is still experimenting and that Xbox has promised significant technological support.