PlayStation tried to cancel Hideo Kojima's Physint, now Xbox is publishing it
Overview & Key Takeaways
The console war factions sure know how to fight.
Physint has been hyped as Kojima Productions' return to "tactical espionage action" or, in other words, Hideo Kojima's return to making stealth action games in the style of Metal Gear Solid. It's been a PlayStation exclusive since its reveal in 2024, but things have changed dramatically: after Sony tried to cancel the project entirely in June this year, Kojima has found refuge with Microsoft.
"In mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the Physint project," Hideo Kojima wrote on X.
"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.
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"Please rest assured that development of Physint, our genre-defining action-espionage title, is ongoing and will continue moving forward."
In an exceedingly rare turn of events, Sony has even released its own statement, though it's unlikely to paper over the fact that the company tried to cancel a Hideo Kojima game.
"After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with Kojima Productions on its project Physint," the official PlayStation X account posted. "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."
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Xbox boss Asha Sharma, obviously chuffed, offers a more restrained missive: "Physint and OD!", she wrote. "Proud to build both with @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN in Japan. A big moment for Xbox."
In a seperate Xbox press release it's revealed that the relationship will "extend beyond games", with film and TV collaborations in the pipeline.
The change is unlikely to be entirely smooth: whether Physint will continue to use the Decima Engine—built by Guerrilla Games and owned by Sony—is yet to be seen. Physint also promises to be fairly unconventional: despite being marketed as "'tactical espionage action game", Kojima has also said the project will be "both a game and a movie at the same time". So Metal Gear Solid 4, then?
Physint doesn't have a release date but, as of last year, it was expected to release within six years. It'll follow OD, another Kojima Xbox exclusive, which according to Kojima himself, people at big companies told him he was "crazy" for making.
