The messaging around Hideo Kojima’s PHYSINT moving from PlayStation to Xbox has been decidedly muddy, and that’s probably deliberate.
On the evening of Sept. 9, news broke out about how Kojima’s next action espionage title, originally under the banner of PlayStation, was no longer moving forward there and instead would be a continuation of its partnership with Xbox. Then, on Sept. 11, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported that PHYSINT losing backing at PlayStation had to do with “budget concerns” and “missed deadlines,” leading to Kojima Productions taking the game to Xbox where it will now be published.
Kojima Productions appeared to take issue with the report, releasing a statement on Sept. 20 that was likely aimed at Schreier’s sources and reporting of the subject, and something of a back-and-forth began.
“Normally, we would not comment on unsubstantiated speculation on the internet, but these aspersions around our relationship with PlayStation, the commercial performance of the DEATH STRANDING franchise, and the broader production planning and investment for PHYSINT, have reached beyond the studio and have touched our fans, our creative partners, and colleagues we have worked alongside with for three decades,” the statement said. “None of the claims written came from any official or on-the-record source and as such we encourage you to take them with a dose of skepticism.”
The latest update came over the weekend when Schreier responded in a ResetEra thread about the update, continuing the saga.
“There’s no denial here so nothing I feel any particular need to respond to, but one thing I’ll add (and I believe I said this in my video) is that Sony and Kojima Productions were in negotiations over the future of the game for a while before it was canceled,” Schreier said. “Kojima Productions may be unhappy about how SIE handled it, but the news didn’t come out of nowhere.”
If the issues raised in Schreier’s report are true and there were concerns on Sony’s end, it appears that the company tried to amicably move forward without acknowledging any of it publicly. But whoever Schreier spoke to seems to have caused quite the kerfuffle, and so the drama ensues.
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“While we recognize that the article may have caused alarm, we want to reassure you all, for the record: that the studio is in a healthy, profitable state, development for PHYSINT continues to move forward with Xbox, and our relationship with PlayStation remains strong,” Kojima Productions said.
Either way, PHYSINT likely won’t see the light of day for many, many years, even when it is ready, with the bulk of the studio currently working on the first-person horror title OD: KNOCK for now. In fact, PHYSINT is reportedly still in early experimental phases without a game engine attached.
