The other day, some surprising news dropped: Sony has pulled out of publishing Hideo Kojima’s next game, titled Physint. That resulted in Xbox stepping in and taking over. But that left questions hanging in the air. Why did Sony back out? Well, we might have some answers thanks to Jason Schreier.
According to Schreier’s sources, there were several factors that led to Sony’s decision. The first was that neither of the Death Stranding games did well commercially, apparently failing to meet Sony’s expected revenue targets.
Which neatly brings us to point two: Kojima Productions had already allegedly missed deadlines on the project. It was also apparently on track to be well over budget, despite still being years away from release. In a video Schreier released separately from his written report, he says that since the Concord disaster of 2024, Sony has sought much tighter deadlines to stop anything like that happening again.
The third major factor was that Physint wouldn’t be exclusive to PlayStation permanently, even though Sony would be pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the project. Schreier doesn’t say it outright, but it’s heavily implied that Physint would have a year of PlayStation exclusivity like both Death Stranding games previously. In his video, Schreier claims there were negotations regarding making the exclusivity longer, but Sony and Kojima Studio couldn’t reach an agreement.
As for the Xbox deal, Schreier’s sources tell him it includes a PC publishing deal, TV and film rights to both Physint and another project from Kojima Productions, and the OD horror game. Presumably, as part of the deal, Xbox will get one year of Physint exclusivity, and then Kojima Productions will be free to launch it on PS5 as well.
Xbox has picked up a very nice PR win from all of this. Sony’s announcement that they had decided to end the relationship was cold and clinical, while Kojima’s explanation of the event makes it sound like there was no warning that Sony wanted out. Fans have therefore been quick to voice their displeasure at Sony, and in the middle of it all Xbox has swooped in and got to paint itself as the saviour of Physint.
Mind you, this is the same Xbox that recently announced 3,200 layoffs and got rid of four of its own studios. It’s kind of darkly funny that they would then turn around and invest in a potentially risky project.
This new report does indicate that Sony has some decent reasons for wanting out: if the project is already showing signs of being well over budget and has already missed deadlines, Sony likely wanted to cut its losses before Physint became a financial black hole for the company.
Of course, being over-budget and behind schedule are kind of normal things in triple-A development these days. And it isn’t like Sony hasn’t happily tossed money into the void before – Concord, anyone? But these days, it seems like Sony is try to revise some of its plans.
Kojima is known for being eccentric, for creating insanely long cutscenes and for pursuing whatever strange idea has entered his head regardless of how difficult or expensive it might be. That creative freedom is part of the reason people care about his games in the first place. You don’t hire Hideo Kojima because you want somebody to quietly deliver a safe sequel on time and under budget.
From Kojima Productions’ perspective, Schreier says that delays and rising budgets are hardly unusual in triple-A development. The studio would presumably argue that the result is typically a critically acclaimed game, plenty of awards and the sort of prestige that can help distinguish a platform. The important question isn’t whether Physint was late or over budget, but just how badly it had drifted.
And this wouldn’t be the first time a relationship with Kojima was broken because of money and Kojima’s own quirks. Konami and Kojima parted ways years ago and no official reason was ever offered, but it was widely reported that Konami was growing annoyed with Kojima Productions operating as its own entity. Metal Gear Solid 5 was also reported to be well past its budget, and Konami was frustrated by Kojima’s perfectionism, delays and unusually autonomous control over development.
From Kojima’s perspective, he reportedly was unhappy with the lack of creative control and the fact that he wasn’t being allowed to do anything except Metal Gear Solid.
Sony’s alleged problems with Kojima sound quite similar to Konami’s. However, it would also be stupid to enter into a relationship with Kojima without accepting that you’re dealing with a genius lunatic. Kojima’s one of the few big personalities in gaming, a man known for being eccentric, for creating insanely long cutscenes, developing some of the most interesting games around and for probably not being easy to work with, as all creatively driven people tend to be within an industry where creativity isn’t always wanted.