REPORT: Kojima Productions Partners With Xbox To Publish New Stealth Game Project PHYSINT, After Sony Backs Out Of Collaboration
PlayStation cancelled the project back in June
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
9/10/20264 min read
Hideo Kojima's new stealth game becomes Xbox property
PHYSINT was originally announced as a PlayStation exclusive in 2024
Kojima Productions now has two projects under the Xbox library
Official PHYSINT key art
In another sweeping exodus from the PlayStation library, news broke officially that Xbox will become the new publishers and working partners of Kojima Productions' project PHYSINT. On September 9th, the Xbox Team posted an update detailing this arrangement and potential future endeavors for what is aimed to be a spiritual successor to Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear franchise.
Hideo Kojima has spent his career challenging conventions and expanding what games can be. Today, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS announced the next chapter of its partnership with XBOX.
In addition to OD and PHYSINT, this relationship will also extend beyond games, with XBOX and KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS collaborating across film and television to bring new stories to broader audiences.
We look forward to sharing more as development progresses.
Hideo Kojima, with Matt Booty (left) and Asha Sharma (right) in April 2026
PHYSINT FALLING OUT WITH PLAYSTATION
While Kojima was notified back in June 2026 of this news (giving Kojima Productions three months to find new financial backers), it was not too much longer after Xbox made the acquisition of PHYSINT official, the official PlayStation social media account posted their statement regarding their cancellation and involvement with the project:
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.
The split appears to be mutual, but it is rather astounding to see something like this unfold. Considering Kojima's ties to the PlayStation hardware dating back to 1998's Metal Gear Solid, such an abrupt departure can be telling about the current inner workings and financial structure of Sony's game division for them to come to this decision. PHYSINT was initially revealed during PlayStation's State of Play in January of 2024 as an exclusive. Hideo Kojima, who has an appreciation for physical media, was on record for not being particularly pleased with PlayStation's decision to go all-digital, though that's not likely a domino that's fallen in this chain of events.
From his official Twitter/X account, Hideo Kojima posted his response:
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 the project alive, we have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner. In the course of seeking advice and pursuing negotiations with people across many fields, 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. Please rest assured that development of PHYSINT, our genre-defining action-espionage title, is ongoing and will continue moving forward.
For Xbox, it's certainly an ambitious decision on their part. With Hideo Kojima working on two exclusive projects (teaming up with horror movie director Jordan Peele on OD), they do bring in a notable name that does serve the purpose of expanding the Xbox brand into Japanese video game fan appeal, a demographic that has eluded them since even the rousing success of the Xbox 360 days. Going forward, Xbox is redefining its image to place an emphasis back on Xbox since Asha Sharma has taken over for Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond.
Sharma has also made considerable slashes to Xbox Game Studios, cutting costs to try and salvage their business model to a "healthy" state. Which is something that will be fascinating to observe with this collaboration with Kojima. While his firing from Konami back in 2015 angered a great deal of fans, it's worth pointing out that the constant delays were driving up expenses for the publisher. Sure, 2015 was a definitely a different (darker) time for Konami, as they seemingly abandoned mainline game development in favor of pachinko machines. But Kojima's inability to finish even a highly anticipated entry, while also working on his interpretation of Silent Hill at the time, becomes fiscally untenable for any studio.
The Death Stranding series of games certainly weren't commercial failures. Combined, Death Stranding and DS2: On The Beach have sold over 27 million copies. Granted, the sequel has moved units at a slower pace than the first game. For an exclusive title, that's still fairly good. It's far too early to know what OD and PHYSINT are by the concept phase. Tracking the production cycle and costs, these games will likely be feature titles on Xbox's next generation hardware (that's an estimation I've made up, not official projections. So feel free to come at me with heat, if you must). For a company that is still in the midst of trimming frivolous spending, to welcome in a game designer and director that goes above and beyond the call of duty could be quite the wildcard.
SOURCES: X/Twitter, Xbox.com