PlayStation’s cancelation of Physint – before Xbox swooped in as publisher – came as a huge shock to famed director Hideo Kojima because, to him, a return to the action-espionage genre he helped pioneer is “the biggest selling title I could possibly create.”
Earlier this month, Sony announced it had parted ways with Kojima Productions’ Physint, a seemingly huge game it had excitedly revealed years prior. Minutes later, Xbox picked up an easy win and announced that it would be publishing the project instead, alongside the duo’s already-revealed horror game OD.
Now, speaking to The Washington Post, Hideo Kojima pulled back the curtain on all the drama. In June of this year, Sony apparently met with studio president Shinji Hirano, Kojima, and head of talent development Aki Saito in a Zoom call to let them know the company would no longer be funding Physint.
Kojima says the news left him “shocked and surprised,” via an interpreter, though there’s apparently no hard feelings for Sony: “I didn’t have any anger or sadness.” He then quickly got to work trying to find a new partner to save both Physint and the people employed at his studio.
“We’re an independent studio. That means if they can’t fund us, our studio could collapse,” he tells The Washington Post.
Part of Kojima’s shock came from the fact that Physint isn’t some kind of niche project that will only appeal to a handful of people. While Kojima’s never outright name dropped Metal Gear Solid during Physint’s promotional run, the upcoming game is clearly a spiritual successor to his most iconic, enduring, mainstream work yet. “This is the biggest selling title I could possibly create,” he explains. “I didn’t think Physint would be on the list of being canceled.”
“I’ve been working with them [Sony] for like 30 years… Mr. Ken Kutaragi, Mr. Hirai, I was close with them. But it’s not like that recently. I realized that, okay, this is the reality,” Kojima says in a separate interview with IGN.
Adding to the shock cancelation was Sony’s previous excitement around Physint. During a State of Play showcase in 2024, PlayStation executive Hermen Hulst stood by Kojima to reveal Physint with the promise it would tie the worlds of gaming and film closer than any previous Kojima title – in close collaboration with Sony’s movie and music divisions, no less. The announcement was even shot on Sony’s Colombia Pictures headquarters, as the movie production company was also somehow involved with the project at the time.