Kojima and PlayStation: it's over! At least where PHYSINT is concerned, the new collaboration between the father of Metal Gear and Sony, announced with much fanfare a little over a year ago during a State of Play. But today, it's done. Curtain down. Billed as Hideo Kojima's grand return to the action-espionage genre with PlayStation's backing, the project has now been dropped by Sony. According to Hideo Kojima himself, the bad news landed in mid-June, forcing Kojima Productions to find a way of keeping development going. In the end it was Xbox that took the game designer in, with the Redmond firm agreeing to pick up the project and handle publishing duties. Snooze you lose? Not quite — it's more that PlayStation no longer really believes in Mr Hideo Kojima's project, and the sales of Death Stranding 2 must have put a strain on the collaboration between the two parties.
Xbox rides to Kojima's rescue
This new partnership essentially broadens an already existing relationship between Xbox and Kojima Productions built around OD, the mysterious horror game in development at the studio. But Microsoft and Kojima are now looking even further ahead, as their partnership is also set to extend into film and television in order to develop new stories. For Xbox, landing PHYSINT is obviously quite the catch, while Kojima gets to carry on working on a project he seems particularly attached to. The creator explains that the game matters to him personally and to his studio, which is what pushed him to do everything he could to keep it alive.
That leaves the big unknown: which platforms will PHYSINT actually launch on? Xbox has confirmed its role as publisher, but no hardware or release date has been announced yet. At this stage, then, there's no way of knowing whether the game will become an Xbox exclusive or whether it might also appear on PS5. One thing is certain: Sony has parted ways with Kojima, though it insists it all happened on very good terms. Still, for a game meant to symbolise Kojima's return to espionage, PHYSINT has already taken quite the plot twist.
