PlayStation recently announced without warning that it will end its partnership with legendary Death Stranding series creator Hideo Kojima on the development of his latest espionage title, Physint, and the new game was subsequently taken over by the Xbox team as publisher. Since then, Sony has never explained what led to this decision, causing various theories to circulate among players, such as disappointing sales for Death Stranding 2 or Physint’s budget ballooning out of control, and now Kojima Productions has finally released an official statement.
You may have seen a recent article that mentions KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, speculating on the reasons for the change in publishing partners for PHYSINT.
Normally, we would not comment on unsubstantiated speculation on the internet, but these aspersions around our relationship with… pic.twitter.com/UUjSbqziAF
— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) September 20, 2026
In a recent post, Kojima Productions officially responded to various recent online speculations about why PlayStation parted ways with them. According to the studio, they generally do not respond to this discussion, but stressed that these rumors online have exceeded the studio’s expectations and have affected fans, creative partners, and partners who have worked alongside Hideo Kojima’s team for 30 years. Therefore, they urged fans to “be skeptical” of these unverified claims.
However, Kojima Productions also admitted that this major change has indeed had a fairly serious impact on Physint. Yet, even though these shifts may lead some fans to start worrying about the studio’s future, they still emphasized that the team’s current development situation is very positive, and that both OD and Physint are developing steadily with the assistance of Microsoft and Xbox. Moreover, they also maintain a good relationship with PlayStation.
As for whether Physint will become an Xbox exclusive as a result of this change, that remains to be seen, but given that the team specifically emphasized its relationship with PlayStation, the game may still come to PlayStation platforms.
And even though it is still in a fairly early stage of development at this point, the Kojima Productions team also revealed the latest wave of cast members for Physint at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, and announced that Bill Skarsgård, who appeared in the It series and John Wick: Chapter 4, will star as the game’s protagonist.
Source: KOCPC Chinese