On September 9, PlayStation unexpectedly announced that it would end its collaboration with Kojima Productions on Hideo Kojima’s latest espionage action game, Physint, and Microsoft Xbox immediately stepped in, announcing a new agreement with the developer for the same project. Now, Hideo Kojima himself has officially responded to this development in a statement.
First officially unveiled at a PlayStation State of Play showcase in 2024, Physint is an espionage action game led by Hideo Kojima and is often regarded by players as a spiritual successor to the Metal Gear Solid series. The legendary game creator also emphasized that the game would blur the line between film and games. However, in its latest statement, PlayStation said it had made the “difficult choice” to end the collaboration.
As confirmed earlier through our official channels, in mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project. PHYSINT is an important project both to me personally and to KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. Determined to keep… pic.twitter.com/rQqhxAnb7N
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 10, 2026
In a follow-up response, Hideo Kojima revealed that they had actually received notice from PlayStation Studios as early as June this year that it planned to cancel the development project for Physint. This sudden decision forced Kojima Production to immediately begin looking for a new partner, and after several months of developments, they ultimately found a partner under Xbox that “shared a common vision” with them for the future, successfully allowing Physint to continue.
Subsequently, Xbox’s new CEO Asha Sharma also issued a new statement, saying they were honored to collaborate with Kojima Production on Physint and announcing that the game would be produced in Japan. Notably, Hideo Kojima’s upcoming horror game OD, currently in development, had already been confirmed to be published in partnership with Xbox, and this development has made Physint an Xbox title as well. Therefore, many analysts and fans believe this will be a major victory for Asha Sharma and Microsoft Xbox.
Since Physint is still in early development, many details have yet to be finalized, but Hideo Kojima still calls the game a “next-generation game.” Combined with this latest development, many players believe this espionage action game is very likely to become an exclusive title for the next-generation Xbox console.
For now, Microsoft has confirmed that its next-generation Xbox console, “Project Helix,” is still in ongoing development and keeps calling it a hybrid of a “game console and PC.” As for Sony’s PS6, no information has been made public yet, but according to speculation from many analysts, due to the ongoing global component shortage, Sony still will not disclose any new hardware information in the short term.
What is certain is that just as Sony has recently been facing continuous backlash over controversies such as digitalization, Xbox has seized the opportunity and immediately launched a “disc-to-digital” feature, allowing players to convert their physical discs into digital versions. Moreover, many rumors suggest that the next-generation Xbox console will still retain an optical drive, but this has not yet been confirmed.
On the other hand, the news that Sony had canceled the Physint collaboration project also caught many industry insiders off guard, including former Sony PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, prompting him to immediately publish a short post using a surprised kaomoji to convey his indescribable feelings.
（´-`）.｡oO（びっくりしたなあ｡｡｡）
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) September 10, 2026
So why exactly did Sony PlayStation make such a decision? Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of the Japanese game industry consultancy Kantan Games, believes it is very likely related to Hideo Kojima’s previous title, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, being critically acclaimed but commercially disappointing.
The analyst said that although Hideo Kojima’s name certainly has enormous drawing power, the decline in sales performance for Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2 still made Sony uneasy, and it ultimately decided to formally cut ties with him. Since neither Sony nor Kojima Production has yet disclosed exact official sales data for Death Stranding 2, directly comparing the two games’ performance is not easy, but the prolonged failure to disclose sales figures is itself not a good sign.
According to a publicly released assessment report from Alinea Analytics, Death Stranding 2 has sold about 2.5 million copies so far, and this performance is indeed in stark contrast to the 20 million players reached by the original Death Stranding; however, there are still some aspects of these figures that warrant particular attention.
As of March 2021, Death Stranding had sold 5 million copies, and by March 2025 that had grown to 20 million players, though this figure actually includes players from Xbox Game Pass and those who obtained it for free through the Epic Games Store. In July of this year, Kojima Production also officially confirmed that the two Death Stranding games had surpassed 27 million players, but regardless, it is certain that Death Stranding 2’s sales performance is indeed still lower than that of the original Death Stranding.
As things stand, Kojima Production’s main development focus still appears to be on OD, and given that even this game has yet to reveal many details or release information, players may have to wait a while longer before seeing any further news about Physint made public.
Source: KOCPC Chinese