Sony reportedly cut off Hideo Kojima's Physint for deadline and budget concerns

Profitability was another factor in Sony’s decision not to fund Kojima’s latest game, Physint, a project allegedly plagued by missed deadlines and apparently already heading into the red, according to people close to the project. (This is a surprising and alarming wrinkle if true, given Kojima has stated the game isn’t expected to drop for another “5 to 6” years.) PlayStation is also standing by its decision not to release any more single-player games on PC, which meant it’d be out of the profit loop if Physint went on to have a PC release. That’s not an issue for Xbox, which is in the PC biz and, according to insiders, “plans to publish Physint on PC” and console, which Kojima no doubt found attractive when selecting his next publishing partner. Bloomberg notes another possible factor in Sony’s decision: Insiders claim that Kojima’s previous Sony console exclusives, Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, “didn’t meet PlayStation’s revenue expectations.” 

Sony appears to be at a crossroads, facing an “AI-driven memory crunch” that is contributing to supply shortages and rising hardware prices, which is “driving the company to look for more ways to maximize profits and generate more revenue per user,” per Bloomberg. This comes after its recent, and very unpopular, decision to stop producing new PlayStation game discs beginning in 2028. (Sony has since stated that existing titles will still be available for reorder, at least for now.) The company has also struggled to get several high-profile endeavors off the ground, like the canceled The Last Of Us Online and a live-service God Of War project. Concord, the live-service shooter whose development spanned Sony’s acquisition of creator Firewalk Studios in 2023, eventually bombed so badly that Firewalk no longer exists. Perhaps this split with Kojima is the wake-up call Sony needs to finally start working on itself as Kojima goes off gallivanting with Xbox to do whatever makes them happy. Pain is a necessary part of growth, after all.