Now we know why PlayStation walked away from Hideo Kojima.
A day after Kojima announced Xbox saved PHYSINT, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reports Sony pulled out of the game over concerns about budget, profitability, and exclusivity.
One major factor, according to people familiar with the project: Death Stranding and its sequel didn’t meet PlayStation’s revenue expectations.
Over Budget, Behind Schedule, And Not Staying Exclusive
Per the report, PHYSINT missed deadlines and was on track to run well over budget while still being years away from release.
Sony also didn’t want to put hundreds of millions into another game that wouldn’t stay on PlayStation. Both Death Stranding games were timed exclusives that later hit other platforms, and Kojima Productions kept ownership of the IP.
Bloomberg adds that most of the PlayStation executives who had close relationships with Kojima have left the company in recent years.
That relationship goes back to the original Metal Gear Solid on PS1, the game that helped make both Kojima and the PlayStation brand. When Kojima left Konami in 2015, he signed with PlayStation almost immediately.
PlayStation addressed the split on social media, saying it made the “difficult decision to step away.” The company declined to comment further to Bloomberg.
Concord, Canceled Games, And The Disc Backlash
The report puts the decision inside a rough year for Sony.
The AI-driven memory chip crunch has led to PlayStation hardware shortages and higher prices, pushing the company to look for more revenue from every user.
Sony’s live-service push mostly failed. Concord was pulled from stores two weeks after launch, and Bloomberg reports PlayStation responded with stricter production milestones and several canceled games.
And all of it is happening while fans are still hammering Sony over ending physical discs in 2028.
Xbox: “Betting On Kojima-san Is An Easy Call”
Xbox looked at the same project and saw an opportunity, according to people familiar with the company’s strategy.
Earlier this year, Sony decided to stop releasing its single-player games on PC, per Bloomberg. So Sony would not have seen anything from a future PC version of PHYSINT, the way it missed out when Death Stranding made money on PC.
Xbox puts all of its games on PC, and it plans to publish PHYSINT on both PC and Xbox.
The deal also includes film and television rights to both PHYSINT and OD. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has said pushing Xbox properties into film and TV is a big part of her strategy.
“Betting on Kojima-san is an easy call,” an Xbox spokesperson told Bloomberg, adding that Xbox believes in the studio’s ability to build AAA games on brand-new IP.
The last time a company walked away from Kojima, it was Konami, and he answered by signing with PlayStation. This time PlayStation walked, and the answer was Xbox.
Related: Xbox Answers The PlayStation Disc Backlash: Insert A Disc, Claim A Digital Copy
