Xbox Swoops In To Save Kojima’s PHYSINT After PlayStation Quietly Canceled It

PHYSINT was supposed to be Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation-backed return to tactical espionage action, the closest thing to a new Metal Gear Solid he’s made since leaving Konami. As of September 9, it isn’t a PlayStation game at all.

PlayStation Is No Longer Funding Hideo Kojima’s PHYSCINT

PlayStation’s account was actually the one that broke the split publicly, in a statement noticeably thin on detail. The company called it “the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT,” while insisting the relationship “remains strong after three decades” of working together.

Nowhere in the post is there any explanation of why the cancellation actually happened.

Kojima Fills In The Rest Of The Story

Kojima followed shortly after with the actual timeline PlayStation’s post left out. He said Kojima Productions got word “in mid-June of this year” that PlayStation Studios planned to cancel PHYSINT, calling it a project that mattered to him personally. What followed was three months of quietly shopping the game around. “We have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner,” he wrote, before landing on Xbox:

We found in XBOX a partner with whom we share a common vision for the future, and we have decided to team up with them once again.”

He closed by reassuring fans the game itself hasn’t lost momentum, insisting development “is ongoing and will continue moving forward.”

Xbox Didn’t Waste Any Time Securing PHYSINT 

Xbox’s own post landed the same night, confirming that have secured the rights to PHYSINT:

We started with OD. Now, our partnership with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS is expanding to PHYSINT. We’re just getting started.”

The Xbox Wire post that followed added the official framing from both sides. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma called it an honor that “Kojima-san has chosen XBOX,” while Kojima’s own line struck a more forward-looking tone than his earlier post, describing it as an expansion of the OD relationship rather than a fresh start.

The post also confirmed the partnership now stretches beyond games entirely, into film and television projects the two plan to develop together.

This Isn’t Kojima’s First Deal With Xbox

Xbox and Kojima Productions have a history that predates this week. OD, Kojima’s horror project co-written with Jordan Peele and starring Sophia Lillis, has been an Xbox-backed title since 2022, after Kojima previously said he wasn’t interested in developing third-party IP for anyone, with Xbox being the one publisher willing to take on OD’s unconventional pitch when others passed.

PHYSINT, the action-espionage project, was announced in early 2024 as a joint effort between Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Columbia Pictures, making this week’s switch a reversal of one of Sony’s more prominent partnerships.

With both of Kojima’s major non-Death Stranding projects now under Xbox’s publishing umbrella, players hoping to follow his next games will need an Xbox or a PC with an Xbox account,  unless Xbox is willing to port OD and PHYSINT to PlayStation.