Hideo Kojima says Sony Interactive Entertainment pulled the plug on PHYSINT, and that the game is still very much alive under a new partner.
According to a statement from Kojima, Kojima Productions received notice from SIE in mid-June saying it would “cancel the ‘PHYSINT‘ project currently in production.” The studio didn’t accept that as the end of the road.
“For me personally, and for Kojipro as well, PHYSINT is an important project, and in order to continue it at all costs, we have been searching for a new partner over these past three months,” Kojima said.
That search is over. Kojima says the studio spoke to people across multiple fields and held negotiations before landing on Microsoft.
“We have decided to team up again with XBOX as a partner with whom we can share a mutual ‘vision for the future,'” he said, adding that the “next-generation ‘espionage action’ game PHYSINT is continuing production, so please don’t worry.”
From State of Play to Xbox
PHYSINT was revealed at the very end of PlayStation’s State of Play on January 31, 2024, with Kojima appearing alongside then-SIE boss Hermen Hulst. It was pitched as a brand-new action-espionage IP built with Sony, and Kojima said full production would kick off once Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was done.
The reveal leaned hard on Kojima’s history in the genre and his ambition to blur the line between games and film, with Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures shown on screen. There was no gameplay and no release date.
Xbox isn’t a random choice. Kojima Productions has been working with Microsoft since 2023 on OD, the experimental horror project announced at The Game Awards with Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, Udo Kier, and Jordan Peele attached. Microsoft has pushed its cloud tech as a key part of that game.
Worth stressing: this is a partnership, not a buyout. Kojima Productions remains independent and has always jumped between publishers. Nothing here says Kojima can never work with Sony again.
