Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding , was splitting his future prospects. One game, OD , he was developing with Xbox. Another, PHYSINT , with PlayStation. As of late on Wednesday, that’s now changed.

Sony was the first to announce that it had parted ways with Kojima and would no longer be working with him on PHYSINT . Here’s its conciliatory statement on the news:

“An update from PlayStation Studios: After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT . We continue to have great admiration for Hideo Kojima’s vision for the game.”

“Our relationship remains strong after three decades of industry-leading, genre-defining creative cooperation, and we look forward to continued close collaboration with Hideo Kojima and his award-winning independent studio in the future.”

Two parties in the gaming world going their separate ways is not uncommon, albeit separating from a figure as renowned as Hideo Kojima is not a great look. However, when Kojima himself chimed in, he was extremely blunt and transparent about what really happened, at least according to his side:

“Earlier, there was an official release from Kojipro, but suddenly, in mid-June this year, a notice arrived from SIE stating that they would “cancel the ‘ PHYSINT ’ project currently in production.” 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. While seeking advice from people in various fields and advancing negotiations, we have decided to team up again with XBOX as a partner with whom we can share a mutual “vision for the future.” The next-generation “espionage action” game “P H YSINT” is continuing production, so please don’t worry.”

Yes, that’s correct. Sony was on the verge of potentially cancelling PHYSINT entirely, and the final twist here is that the collaboration is now with Xbox, PlayStation’s chief rival. The brand celebrated that on social media, as you might imagine. It’s the latest in a series of apparent blunders from Sony, which run the gamut from:

  • Announcing it would no longer make new physical discs in 2028.
  • Burning hundreds of millions and years of development on a string of live-service game failures, delaying its bread-and-butter single-player games across a number of studios.
  • Ending development on Destiny 2 , its only live game with an existing, expansive fanbase.

And more, shutting down Bluepoint, drastically raising PlayStation hardware prices, no longer porting single-player games to PC, and so on.

It is at least a little more complicated than it seems, however. While this is a huge PR loss for Sony and a PR gain for Microsoft, the reality of PHYSINT development raises some questions the public doesn’t have answers to.

PHYSINT was announced in 2024 and its unclear its current status and of course, development budget, the chief issue facing blockbuster games in the present state of the market. It is also noteworthy that, since Kojima is no longer working with Sony, he’s lost access to the Sony-exclusive Decima engine, raising further questions about the path forward. The game is high-concept, meant to blend film and games, and previously, Kojima was using Sony Pictures and the Sony-owned Columbia Pictures for that aspect. That’s also not happening.

We have no idea when this new partnership will yield the actual game, but it stands to reason it will still be a number of years. But there is no spinning that, no matter the underlying reasons, having a luminary like Hideo Kojima relaying that Sony was about to cancel his game looks awful for a brand that does not need any more controversies this year.

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