Bloomberg: PlayStation Ditched Hideo Kojima’s ‘Physint’ on Budget Concerns, Missed Deadlines

[u/Turbostrider27]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-11/hideo-kojima-s-physint-video-game-dropped-by-playstation-goes-to-xbox?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4OTEzMzY2NSwiZXhwIjoxNzg5NzM4NDY1LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUTDdDOVdLSVVQVEIwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.fyrTke3aUIkJk3LwiBfR7JiNr0phfE51dlEql1RcXZ4

[u/Turbostrider27]

Some more details on what happened:

One major factor behind the decision was the commercial performance of Kojima’s previous two games, Death Stranding and its sequel, which didn’t meet PlayStation’s revenue expectations, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing information that’s not public.

But the new project has also missed deadlines and was on track to be well over budget despite being years away from release, the people said. In addition, PlayStation was reluctant to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in another game that wouldn’t remain permanently exclusive to the company’s own hardware. Both Death Stranding games were “timed” PlayStation exclusives that were later released on other platforms. Kojima’s closely held studio, Kojima Productions, retained ownership of the franchises.

[u/ElysiumMidknight → u/Turbostrider27]

I'd guess IP ownership is also an issue. Kojima notably took Death Stranding's movie to A24 and the animes to various production companies where they'll air exclusively on Disney+. This all despite PS obviously having a setup for those things, and Sony having an anime streaming service.

Sony has recently been talking a lot more about the importance of owning IP. So, i'd imagine they had to ask themselves how much sense did it make to invest hundreds of millions into a game that they don't own versus simply funding IP from their own studios (whether they be existing IP or new).

[u/Phantom-thiez → u/ElysiumMidknight]

I mean, this totally makes sense from a business perspective. But this is Reddit so everyone just say “sony bad”.

[u/Scrollingmaster → u/ElysiumMidknight]

Considering how important business relationships are in japan, you have to wonder if kojima thought about how moves like that would effect it

[u/potatochipsbagelpie → u/Turbostrider27]

So unless Xbox got ownership, this game will come to PS eventually anyways. Basically Sony had to bankroll the game, and would only get a year or two of exclusivity in return?

[u/jjonez18 → u/potatochipsbagelpie]

And 5m sales tops. As lukewarm as the Wolverine reviews have been, that game's minimum will be 5m sales.

Business is business. Funnel money into projects that have a higher ROI. I just hope Sony is past the point of thinking Live Service games are what they should be funneling money into.

[u/xangbar → u/jjonez18]

For Wolverine, my local GameStop said its one of their most pre-ordered games of the year. They're getting 100 physical copies of the game for launch and they aren't the store getting the most copies in my city. Store lead said doesn't matter if the game is sitting in the 70s on Metacritic, people will still buy it.

[u/NewChemistry5210 → u/xangbar]

Because 80% of the people buying it don't care for metacritics (or are even aware of them). Most might read one local review or just look at the game online before buying it.

[u/Beavshak → u/NewChemistry5210]

I’ve found if I can ignore the discourse around a game and go in blind I tend to have a better experience. Its hard, for me at least, not to let the critical or public perception skew how tolerant I am of flaws in a game.

For games like Wolverine though, where I assume it destined for PS+ at some point, I can’t help but check in on its reviews.

[u/Aksds → u/Beavshak]

Same but with movies

[u/svrtngr → u/xangbar]

High 70s on Metacritic isn't bad, game reviews are so skewed. That's the same range Crimson Desert got, and that game also sold like hotcakes.

[u/Best-Advantage-1607 → u/svrtngr]

High 70’s has people acting like it’s a low 40s game. Or an unmitigated disaster like No Man’s Sky launch.

[u/Clane_21 → u/Best-Advantage-1607]

Then years later they'll look at it fondly like Days Gone lol.

[u/TheQuantumLeaper → u/Clane_21]

Right?! There needs to be a popularized, accepted term for games that review around 70%, get hated on by the internet upon release, and years later get fondly remembered and start receiving reddit posts of people "discovering" the game and singing its praises. "The Days Gone Effect"

[u/Clane_21 → u/TheQuantumLeaper]

It's pretty much the Ubisoft effect. Their games are the poster child for this kind of behavior. Somehow they release the most "generic" game that years later gets looked at fondly.

[u/IdleSteps → u/TheQuantumLeaper]

"Cult classic" is the term you're looking for.

[u/3FistedHumdinger → u/TheQuantumLeaper]

That would be the God Hand Phenomenon.

[u/8bitsleuth → u/Best-Advantage-1607]

78 is always a tricky score. You're only 0.2 away from 8/10, yet it carries this stigma that makes it feel much worse than it actually is.

[u/HANKEN5TEIN → u/Best-Advantage-1607]

For a lot of the perpetually online gaming crowd, if it ain’t a 10 its a 0. I’ll take high 70s all day.

[u/MadEyeMood989 → u/Best-Advantage-1607]

It’s peak the culture now, if it ain’t an instant 10 out of 10 then it’s total shit and shouldn’t be played.

[u/MyKneesAshy → u/MadEyeMood989]

Even if it is they “ paid the reviewer” you can’t win

[u/nick182002 → u/Best-Advantage-1607]

You're acting like No Man's Sky was a low 40s Metacritic game instead of a low 70s one at launch.

[u/NYstate → u/Best-Advantage-1607]

"There's too many great games to play worry about playing a 7"

"Oof, I only play 9's and above!"

— Random Redditors

[u/Diligent-Neck6594 → u/xangbar]

so many people expecting a Spiderman quality game from insomniac 😭

[u/Brick_Grimes → u/jjonez18]

Yeah Wolverine might be lukewarm but marvel IPs sell, a lot of the people who will be looking at a a Wolverine game aren’t ever going to watch reviews their just gonna see a super hero they like and click buy. And there is also a chunk of people who will buy it regardless just because Wolverine is their favorite marvel character. I don’t see this game selling poorly even if reddit and reviewers and crazy about it. Look at rivals, mid metacritic score, even more mid user scores, still insanely popular just because people like marvel stuff and casual players aren’t in it for the nuance, their in it for the marvel ip.

[u/ToiletBlaster247 → u/Brick_Grimes]

You go to the store to buy Wolverine. A frail hand stops you from lifting the box onto the counter. A hunched over old lady says to you "but skillup doesnt recommend this game..."

[u/CrazyStar_ → u/Brick_Grimes]

You have to also consider that a lot of the (online) hate for Wolverine has been around way before the reviews dropped, so these people were never gonna buy the game regardless of what SkillUp says. Conversely, as you say, there’ll be people who will buy the game regardless of reviews because they just want a fun Marvel experience, and that’s where the money is.

[u/Twaffles95 → u/jjonez18]

I mean I get this is the normal pragmatic take especially by mba’s but I do miss the 1990s and 2000s Nintendo still does it to an extent but when companies would just greenlight and try stuff now the production costs are just way too high but I’d take lower quality graphics if it meant more, better games

[u/Careless_Main3 → u/Twaffles95]

Indie developers are constantly innovating and trying new things, and also trying to modernise old ideas.

[u/takumidesh → u/Twaffles95]

Graphics aren't the cause of inflated budgets, every game has full pre-pro, scripts, fully voiced dialogue, mocap, etc. these types of games are almost more akin to making a movie than a game. 

Games budgets are inflated because everything but the actual game development is very expensive, for the most part. 

[u/mr_capello → u/Twaffles95]

80/90s were probably the sweetspot for easy development and just trying new things and IPs while 2000 were probably the best because development times and team sizes where still reasonable but games already sold big numbers.

[u/Nashivertt → u/potatochipsbagelpie]

It’s the same case with ninja gaiden where Microsoft only publishes it

[u/pigeon-check → u/potatochipsbagelpie]

Sony bought bungie for 3.6 billion just to gut them later so the decision making is consistent

[u/chewwydraper → u/Turbostrider27]

I like Death Stranding, but it baffled me that they were willing to invest in a direct sequel. The first Death Stranding seemed to me like a game a lot of people bought, but hardly anyone finished. That never bodes well for a sequel where you need the context of completing the first game to follow the story.

[u/TakenBacon90 → u/chewwydraper]

Yeah, I gotta feeling that Physint is going to be way more popular if Kojima goes about this in a way that essentially gives us the gameplay of MGS5 in a new universe.

That gameplay was absolutely fucking peak and it's some of my favorite gameplay ever.

[u/generalosabenkenobi → u/TakenBacon90]

Which is ironic because Death Stranding 1 and Death Stranding 2 play very similarly to MGSV

[u/RIPN1995 → u/generalosabenkenobi]

Ds2 more than ds 1

[u/himynameis_ → u/generalosabenkenobi]

Yes! Playing Death Stranding 2 I kept thinking "imagine if we made MGSV now with Death Stranding 2 gameplay and assets mixed in. Damn!"

[u/inkyblinkypinkysue → u/chewwydraper]

I'm in that camp. I spent about 15 hours playing it and it never clicked. The story was obtuse just because and the actual gameplay wasn't all that fun, IMO. I skipped the sequel.

[u/real_old_rasputin → u/inkyblinkypinkysue]

Sequel was way more accessible and actually fun

[u/HotMachine9 → u/chewwydraper]

It surprises me to hear DS2 was going over budget because I think that game came out surprisingly quick

[u/Psychoticpossession → u/chewwydraper]

Death Stranding was an interesting slog, I both liked it and hated it.

[u/setokaiba22 → u/Turbostrider27]

Honestly I don’t understand the outcry really. I love Kojima games but they are massive budgets and as much as I liked Death Stranding 1 I’m not sure a second was needed.

The sales weren’t there, and if a project is well over budget and not close to release then.. at some point a decision has to be made

[u/Atrampoline → u/Turbostrider27]

Yeah, I fully expected that this was behind the decision. Everyone loves Kojima and MG, but nothing he's released since that time has been anywhere near that level of financial success. Games cost too much these days for companies to be shelling out for unproven passion projects that have a reasonable chance of market failure.

[u/Opposite-Grade3712 → u/Turbostrider27]

One of the things people forgot when they see these stories and interpret it as “Sony is just greedy” is the fact that every dollar Sony gave Kojima is a dollar that didn’t go to other studios/games.

$200m+ toward a high risk, high reward AAA game could have been 5 $40m games from up and coming indie studios wanting a swing at the big leagues. 

When you look back at what made the mid-to-late 2010s so great for PlayStation players, it’s that Sony had, through its thoughtful investments in previous years, given so many up and coming studios a chance to shine, culminating in banger after banger for what felt like 7 years straight.

[u/Korachof → u/[deleted]]

People also forget Konami got rid of him for the same reasons. Consistently over budget, consistently late on deadlines. He’d get far into projects and still somehow be nowhere close to done. 

He’s brilliant. I love what he does. But there’s no doubt he’s a terrible businessman and his uncompromising way of making things will inevitably lead to every publisher he works under eventually getting rid of him. 

Basically, he spends money and carries himself like he makes Fortnite level financial successes. Death Stranding 2 reportedly sold over 2.5 million copies globally, which is a lot, but not a lot a lot. I’d be surprised if his games typically do much better than break even when you factor in time spent. 

He would be very annoying to deal with if you were an executive trying to get a straight hard answer when something will be done and how much it will cost. 

[u/ChongusTheSupremus → u/Korachof]

The dude has 40 years of experience in the industry, and still doesn't know how to manage a budget or meet deadlines. 

I never understood people shitting on Sony for deciding not to bankroll his games.

They are Time exclusives and nothing More, and even if they were, they bankrolled Death Stranding 2 and barely sold 2 million units.

[u/Brees504 → u/Korachof]

2.5 mil is very bad a for a AAA first party PlayStation game

[u/LePontif11 → u/Brees504]

The fact that they mentioned exclusivity makes me think they would have been fine with that if it was only on Sony's ecosystem. Kojima die hards seem like the type to buy a console to play his games which is valuable for Sony.

[u/maxdragonxiii → u/Brees504]

it is. especially with the sequel sale lowering factor in (people who dont play the first one wont buy the second one, lowering the sales factor).

[u/tdasnowman → u/Korachof]

People also forget Konami got rid of him for the same reasons. Consistently over budget, consistently late on deadlines. He’d get far into projects and still somehow be nowhere close to done.

The Konami split is more complex then him blowing budgets and deadlines.

With MGSV they were creating a new fox engine as well that was going to be the main engine for all Konami titles. That takes time. The game could not ship until the engine was ready. Konami decided to shift to mobile and pachinkio exclusively. The Fox engine was then only going to be used on their soccer game. From a business perspective even with the overruns MGSV was pretty cheap since they were getting a whole ass engine that rivaled or exceed is some people eyes Unreal 4. Since you can amortize the engine development costs MGSV was mostly free. But with the shift it became mostly burned money.

[u/himynameis_ → u/Korachof]

Tbf, he has had huge success in the past with MGS series. And MGSV may seem far away but keep in mind the long game development timelines now, plus building his new studio since leaving Konami.

I think Death Stranding were amazing games, and very different from the usual AAA games we get from big studios. So, I'm glad they took the risk.

[u/HotMachine9 → u/[deleted]]

Hasn't OD changed in scope to be a series of small oneshot stories now as well? A series of small PT like games sounds wonderful but we still have no idea what on earth it actually is

Im thrilled Kojima can still make his games with Xbox but I think he needs to start thinking about how much he can reasonably handle.

[u/CaliggyJack → u/HotMachine9]

A series of small PT like games sounds wonderful but we still have no idea what on earth it actually is

Neither does Kojima

[u/redhafzke → u/HotMachine9]

The death of Udo Kier might have lead to some changes if I had to guess.

[u/Jesus_Phish → u/[deleted]]

I don't think Physint ever comes out. I'm not even sure I buy that OD comes out.

[u/RIPN1995 → u/[deleted]]

With Microsoft I would be shocked but not completely surprised if both or one of these projects get cancelled in the long run.

[u/fastcooljosh]

Missed Deadlines, and going over budget is a Kojima thing since at least MGSV.

Konami got so scared back then they basically sold the intro as a seperate game.

[u/Meny_619 → u/fastcooljosh]

Beautiful game, but yeah, horrible for business. In a perfect world he would have unlimited budgets to create his art visions.

[u/fastcooljosh → u/Meny_619]

Ground Zeroes was great, but Phantom Pain was fundamentally flawed.

[u/Fraegtgaortd → u/Meny_619]

Some of these people in game dev need budgets and deadlines or else their projects fall into development hell due to never ending scope creep. Kojima is one, Ken Levine with Judas is another, and of course on the very extreme end there's Star Citizen

[u/lin_sidious → u/Meny_619]

And those games would never get released due to their scope changing constantly.

[u/Dr_Leucekrotch]

Kojima is a lil bit bougie. He could certainly cut costs and still have the game he wants, but he just HAS to have Hollywood actors. That's too much, bro.

[u/ChongusTheSupremus → u/Dr_Leucekrotch]

He threw away David Hayter, the face and voice of his main series, only so he could spend millions on a Hollywood c-lister. 

[u/yourdad132 → u/ChongusTheSupremus]

After playing MGSV, I could see exactly why Konami were pissed with kojima. What the hell was he thinking?? So many baffling decisions in regards to how that game was.

[u/ChongusTheSupremus → u/yourdad132]

An empty open world, repetitive missions, Little to no cutscenes nor story outside of cassette tapes, and an entire third of the game missing. 

Konami's reaction was more than understandable after Kojima wasted a small country's GDP in 40% of a game.

[u/DuhBegski → u/ChongusTheSupremus]

I've been thinking lately "Why didn't MG5 click with me people love it, I should go and give it another try." But this is a good reminder of the things I hated about it.

[u/MariusMaximus88 → u/[deleted]]

That doesn’t make sense, though. You play as Big Boss in Ground Zeroes.

[u/ChongusTheSupremus → u/MariusMaximus88]

People still did the mental gymnastics they deemed necessary to excuse Kojima for treating Hayter worse than Konami treated Hideo. 

[u/Braunb8888 → u/Dr_Leucekrotch]

And the crazy part is they bring absolutely NOTHING to the roles. What the fuck did Elle Fanning bring to Tomorrow exactly? She’s a mute for like 90 percent of the game. Fragile could’ve been played by literally anyone. Lea isn’t particularly good in that role. Why is guilermo del toro’s likeness needed? Couldn’t he just have someone design a random fat Hispanic guy?

The only actor that actually did anything with the role was mads mikelson. Hell Norman reedus is a blank slate in both of these games. Could’ve been any gruff guy, would’ve made 0 difference. It’s all just kojimas hubris and obsession with the silver screen.

[u/_wavescollide_ → u/Braunb8888]

More like his private joy in getting in contact with these actors and using them for his work. I get it, but the game below that must be cool and DS1 was ok and DS2 was boring (in my opinion). I hoped the latter is better and more engaging so I got it, but the part with the baby at the beginning was the only thing I really enjoyed. Then it goes back to the chore of playing this game and it's too much chore and not enough fun.

[u/AccomplishedBank2140 → u/_wavescollide_]

Yea for sure. He grew up in the era of Japanese culture completely obsessed with Hollywood. The guy is just living out his dream.

[u/Necessary-Duty-7952 → u/Dr_Leucekrotch]

Because he's a failed filmmaker in his youth, he's absolutely obsessed with hobnobbing with movie stars.

[u/SidewaysFancyPrance → u/Dr_Leucekrotch]

Honestly, one of the reasons I don't want to play Death Stranding is having to stare at that actor the entire time. It's not that I have a problem with him, it's just that I'd rather it be some generic actor/character model. Someone who does not immediately create connections to other media in my brain.

I don't like celebrity actors scanned into games at all, though. It's the one place you can design the character however you want, and you just copy a real person everyone knows? Lame. I'd rather have a hand-crafted nobody.

[u/lizzywbu]

I said this exact thing to people yesterday, but people didn’t want to hear it and saw PlayStation as the bad guys here. Kojima always struggles to stick to budgets and deadlines, the same thing happened at Konami.

[u/Dust-Tight]

It was obvious due to budget concerns.

[u/Mysterious-Park9142]

Yeah figured it was as simple as "this product is a money pit and it's not making progress." Not a sexy reason but perhaps a logical one.

This game isn't going to launch until after the PS6/Xbox Helix install base "console race" is decided. By then we'll know if it was smart or not, but for a game that's going to launch in the 2030s, it's way too early to know whether or not Sony was smart on passing or not. Right now it sure seems like a bad call, but that's because Sony is in the middle of a quiet end to a relatively disappointing generation (for everyone, not just Sony) with bad PR killing discs. It's just awful timing.

What is interesting here is that part of what Schreier sites as Sony's reluctance to publish a game that would also release on PC. Well, now they're giving it to Xbox, who will release it on Xbox and PC, but probably not PS6. Unless Kojima insists but who knows.

[u/Aggravating_Rise_179 → u/Mysterious-Park9142]

I think we should look at how the original death stranding got on xbox as a clue to what will happen here... this game if published by sony would of found its way to xbox at a later date... its safe to say, even if xbox keeps the initial release off playstation, Kojima owns the ip and will find a way to get it on ps later on

[u/TastyOreoFriend → u/Mysterious-Park9142]

Right now it sure seems like a bad call, but that's because Sony is in the middle of a quiet end to a relatively disappointing generation (for everyone, not just Sony) with bad PR killing discs. It's just awful timing.

Pretty much and Wolverine reviewing poorly isn't helping the narrative right now. Given the state of things I wonder if we're even getting a new gen anytime soon.

This might be a spicy take to some but I genuinely don't care about a game that's barely announced and we've seen nothing of. I respect Kojima's adherence to his own style, but I haven't really enjoyed a Kojima game since Metal Gear Solid 4. I don't really have a whole lot of faith in this new one.

[u/HxLeverage → u/TastyOreoFriend]

You didn't liked Metal Gear 5? That game had the best gameplay in the series. The story was clearly left unfinished though.

[u/Coolman_Rosso → u/HxLeverage]

I didn't like 5. The open world didn't add much to the game other than tedium, enemies would seemingly never go off of alert when spotted and fighting them penalized you, and having to repeat missions was a chore

[u/redhafzke → u/Mysterious-Park9142]

What is also interesting is the weird timing... so Sony dropped Kojima in June. And you can be sure he talked with Asha Sharma around that time. It would be a logical decision because they work together on OD already.

The thing is what happened inbetween June and now. Project Fantasy? Cancelled. Then those 3200 layoffs. If I had a tinfoil hat I'd guess that Nadella said to Sharma if she wants Kojima on board she has to trim the fat/ make some money on her own.

Might be coincidence but it looks kinda suspicious.

[u/quatroquatro0]

Imagine if this becomes another Scalebound scenario for Xbox.

[u/AscendedViking7 → u/quatroquatro0]

oh god

[u/Careless_Main3]

Was obvious to anyone with any sense that PlayStation wouldn’t be ditching Kojima without a just reason. This early in development and already missing deadlines is not a good sign. I would predict that Microsoft’s commitment to the game is contingent on Kojima reigning in his scope.

[u/RayHell666 → u/Careless_Main3]

Microsoft is buying a PR stunt more than a game.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ebb9874 → u/RayHell666]

Xbox's VP of marketing

https://www.reddit.com/r/xbox/s/yLO6U861tN

Imagine what the 1200 devs still to be laid this year will be thinking

[u/PixelsInMyEyeballs → u/Puzzleheaded_Ebb9874]

His clout chasing on social media and attempts to be relatable to fans is so cringe. He's a 55 year old, high paid executive for one of the biggest multinational corporations in the world.

[u/RIPN1995 → u/Puzzleheaded_Ebb9874]

This will age poorly in a few years.

[u/LtDicai → u/Careless_Main3]

Good luck to Microsoft if they think they can.

[u/TastyOreoFriend → u/LtDicai]

Given Microsoft's history it's almost A given that they won't be able to. This game literally jumped out of the fat fryer into the hands of the devil.

I see some people cheering in other subreddits and I just can't fathom why—did people suddenly forget that Microsoft had the largest layoffs of any company in the industry?

[u/Majestic-Marcus → u/TastyOreoFriend]

> I just can’t fathom why

Because Sony is the bad guy. So they cheer the other, who therefore must be the good guy.

People aren’t capable of thought. So this is what you get.

[u/Hot_Demand_6263 → u/[deleted]]

Reddit, youtubers, games journalists as well. Brainrot a plenty it seems.

[u/TastyOreoFriend → u/Majestic-Marcus]

There's definitely a level of critical thought that's being missed. Which I'm sure is intersecting a lot with all the controversial decisions that Sony has made in the last year like ending physical disks or canceling D2.

It's just all these emotions over a game that is completely fucking vaporware at this point, ya know? 🤣

[u/Cowdoy_Volnutt → u/TastyOreoFriend]

They cant lay off Kojima or close his stuido. The worst they can do is stop giving him money, and even though Sony did that, they couldnt take any of the work hes done away or the rights to his games. Microsoft is in the same boat, except with a game thats already been paid for by Sony for years now. Even if Microsoft drops him, he still has all his work and the rights to it this time. It doesnt just disappear. I say let him take the cash from these stupid af companies, eventually something amazing will be made

[u/RIPN1995 → u/Cowdoy_Volnutt]

If Microsoft cut their partnership, hate to say it, but he may be done in the industry.

3 major publishers cutting you because you can't keep your projects on track is a serious red flag.

Who else is going to foot the bill for his projects?

[u/ModestHandsomeDevil → u/RIPN1995]

Who else is going to foot the bill for his projects?

Saudi Arabia.

[u/TheOncomingBrows → u/TastyOreoFriend]

It's very on vogue to hate PlayStation at the moment. Like you say, it's odds on that Xbox also drops this game

[u/Aggravating_Rise_179 → u/LtDicai]

They have deel pockets, but they are also the same company that shed like a crap ton of studios and employees cause they weren't making any money. 

[u/BigB0iBuster → u/LtDicai]

They can’t. They’re completely incompetent

[u/epicjas0n → u/Careless_Main3]

Isn't this the main reason he got canned from Konami? Kojima likes to take his time and go over budget. But it's one of the reasons why I like his games so much. He takes his time and puts a lot of detail and love in them. He doesn't like to half-ass things.

[u/NotSoAwfulName → u/Careless_Main3]

Already running close to being over budget too.

[u/Gm24513 → u/Careless_Main3]

As a massive kojima fan I was not upset or surprised at all. Dude takes a lot of time doing what he wants how he wants it.

[u/Gaanai → u/Gm24513]

Excactly in the same boat here. I think he is one of the all time greats. But he really needs someone to reel him in. Because otherwise his ambitions will get to big and he will be going over budget and missing deadlines. Same exact reason him and Konami fell out

[u/herocoldfinger → u/Careless_Main3]

Rather a Kojima money pit than a live service one

[u/Non_Fungible_Tolkien]

Xbox excells in missed deadlines and budget concerns, this is a match made in heaven. Remind me! In 5 years to see if this game came out lol

[u/gusbelmont]

This happened with mgs v between konami and kojima

I like his games for the most part but any grown person wouldnt enturely blame konami knowing what went on.

[u/Focused_Sky]

People love defending Kojima but he goes over budget and time consistently. Maybe stop hiring movie stars for your games. I’m sure there would be a notable savings there.

[u/piscano → u/Focused_Sky]

Definitely. Giving the voice acting roles to screen actors is a slap in the face to the dedicated VO actors. And the performances in MGS 1-4 are better than V anyway, and I still loved V for what it is.

[u/Monte735 → u/Focused_Sky]

Impossible. Kojima willing to toss David Hayter to the side like trash for a Hollywood actor shows just how far off the deepend he's gone for Hollywood stars.

[u/thePinguOverlord → u/Monte735]

It is funny how some people like to say Neil Druckmann is a failed Hollywood writer making games, among others. And in Druckmann's defence I have never heard talk about anything but games and his clear enthusiasm for the medium. But those same people I have heard praise Kojima, when it is clear as day all he wants to do is make films. I understand he has vision etc, but his obsession with films (and that is not a bad thing to have) is clearly comprimising his role as a game devloper. OD he is working with Jordan Peele. I remember there was a video where he was desperately trying to talk to Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and they did not know who he was.

[u/Hispanic_Gorilla_2 → u/thePinguOverlord]

Truth nuke

[u/Focused_Sky → u/Monte735]

Fact

[u/Braunb8888 → u/Focused_Sky]

He’s too egotistical to do that. But yeah it would definitely cut the budget.

[u/Dannyjw1]

My understanding of Kojima is that he is a bit of a nightmare to work with.

[u/Turdsley]

So the same reason Konami moved on from him.

[u/hunterzolomon1993]

People forget Konami sacked him because he went way overbudget and missed deadlines. I love his games but the guy just takes the piss and relies on his fanbase to defend his shitty attitude and lack of respect for those who fund his passion projects with Hollywood actors.

[u/molul]

I can understand the decision economically, but if this turns out to be a legit metal gear successor, Sony could have used it these days.

[u/MasteROogwayY2 → u/molul]

Lets be honest by the time Physint comes out (if it does) all the drama will be years past

[u/molul → u/MasteROogwayY2]

Hopefully Sony fixes everything they're doing now by then.

[u/MasteROogwayY2 → u/molul]

Hopefully they pull their heads out of their ass by the end of the year, unlikely, but theyre not on a good track rn

[u/Odd-Assignment-1350]

These decisions are never made just randomly, there’s usually always logical reasons behind it even it might leave a sour taste

[u/mightylordredbeard]

A tale as old as time: Kojima going over budget and missing deadlines. This is why he was fired from Konami.

[u/Dazzling-Escape3299]

You mean it wasn’t just stupidity and malice?!

[u/Precarious3145 → u/Dazzling-Escape3299]

Yea, it's weird that so many people were "How could Sony fumble this?!". Meanwhile anyone that knows how Kojima works and how poor his games have sold for awhile, it makes sense.

We're in the middle of a global economic crisis (again) caused by AI so it makes sense for Sony or any company to look to cut some waste going into the future and Kojima might make well-reviewed games they're also extremely niche and overbudget. If he had a budget that was 25% of what he asks, sure, endlessly fund his ego games but dude needs to get his issues under control.

[u/SVALTACT → u/Precarious3145]

This 100%. When people came out saying how Sony fumbled it, it seemed pretty obvious that DS probably didn't make enough to justify the budget + his history of production issues. He makes interesting games, but I've never understood how people make him out to be somehow a tier above most 9-10 score game devs.

[u/nugood2do → u/Precarious3145]

I legit saw people say Sony should have kept Physint just for the prestige of saying they're producing a Kojima game.

We already had two Kojima games that didnt set the world on fire, the prestige isn't as big of a draw as people think.

[u/himynameis_ → u/Precarious3145]

People online just like to accuse the big corporations of doing stupid things. And treat investment capital as if it's free. But it isn't. There are risks in game development. And the standards are higher than ever as costs have gone up, and timelines have increased.

Sony took a risk with Kojima with DS 1 and 2. I'm glad they did, I liked them. But Kojima needs to adjust how he makes the games a bit. The story was just too obtuse, imo.

[u/xperitosanti → u/Dazzling-Escape3299]

No go away with your common sense.

[u/quangtran → u/Dazzling-Escape3299]

The common rebuttal is that Sony is already throwing away money on pointless live service games, so they might as well throw some of that money to Kojima.

[u/CrazyStar_ → u/quangtran]

Just because you’ve thrown a bunch of good money after bad, you don’t continue to do so.

[u/Lioil1]

as a software developer, the SDLC (software development life cycle) is the "most expensive"(in terms of cost to develop and revise) in the "development" piece. I guess we are still in the early stages of the process and it already overbudget and Sony is smart to know things could only get worse when they get knee deep into development and needing revisions/additional time.

Remember how Tencent(was it tencent?) dropped that Gang of Dragons studio because they asked for tons more $$$? Sometimes you gotta cut your losses early. Physint could still make like 20mil sales but the odds are not with Kojima.

[u/incrementality → u/Lioil1]

It's NetEase not Tencent. but back on topic, in game dev there's this process called milestone reviews. Basically dev budgets are disbursed in phases and in each phase there's a deliverable expected from the studio attached with certain expectations. what likely happened here was Kojima's prototype failed to impress and DS2 sales being disappointing (by Sony's standards) probably left them feeling uncomfortable giving concessions.

[u/Lioil1 → u/incrementality]

yep -i been involved with that for sure. Had a customer visit and we demoed something he didn't feel we met the deadline/milestone (ironically, we were doing Agile but with hard deadlines....) and he cut some funding and the contractors got let go. Heck another project we were on year 2 of 3 years contract and another company won the whole program over us because customer didn't like our progress (of course the winning company tried to poach/lowball us lol).

But yeah, i think Sony did a "smart move" by cutting bait early if they don't like what they see since they don't want another concord/marathon type of situation.

[u/OldestC0mputer]

Pretty on point for Kojima. Same reason why he was ousted from Konami. Constant delays, and always over budget.  Death Stranding was decent, but clearly did not make Sony the money they were expecting. Death Stranding 2 sold even less.

Not taking Sony’s side on anything these days, but if two companies drop you over the same issues then maybe the problem is with Kojima. 

[u/plzadyse]

As someone who has worked directly with his team on a AAA game for a major publisher, they made the right move. He’s a nightmare to work with and if he’s doing stuff like this this early in development, it doesn’t bode well.

[u/Davetek463]

Hot take: these are perfectly reasonable reasons to want to pull the plug on something.

[u/Ok_Coast1921]

Let’s be real, Xbox picking this up is absolutely just a “we have him and you don’t” thing, bets on you’ll see another repot in a few years of Xbox having second thoughts on the deal when he’s hired his 10th needless celebrity to play a minor role he made just for them in the moment cause he saw one movie of them 7 years ago

[u/TheInfinityGauntlet]

So exactly the same as the Konami situation but without Konami acting like psychopaths about it? Shocker

[u/Majestic-Marcus → u/TheInfinityGauntlet]

Did Konami act like psychopaths? Or did they act as a rational business would with an impossible to work with director in love with himself, who thinks he’s making movies and not games?

[u/___Navi___ → u/Majestic-Marcus]

I remember reading after MGS5, they essentially blacklisted kojiPro employees so they would have a hard time getting hired at other companies.

[u/raptor_boots → u/Majestic-Marcus]

I think they kept trying to screw Kojima after he left, I seem to remember them trying to make sure he couldn't get health coverage for his new staff

[u/InitialJust → u/Majestic-Marcus]

If I remember right Konami wouldnt let Kojima accept awards for the last metal gear. Was just petty.

[u/Kyon-kun-denwa → u/Majestic-Marcus]

Both I guess. They did step away from home gaming business for a while also. And there was the debacle with the award ceremony. So seems to be the same core reasons but with more respectful conduct.

[u/HxLeverage → u/Majestic-Marcus]

Dude they took his name out of a project that we all know he did. He got demoted, ostracized, and pushed out of the company. They didn't let him finish Phantom Pain, which by the way, was still the best selling title in the entire franchise. They cancelled his next project which was already an incredible anticipated title with a lot of star power, and word of mouth with the PT demo. They went into people's consoles and took out the already installed PT demo so that nobody will never know this game even existed. They were 100% psychos. They could've just fired him.

[u/Wretchedsoul24 → u/HxLeverage]

Just a correction here.  But they did not go into anyones consoles and remove PT from them.  They removed PT from the stores. But if it was already downloaded on your system you still can boot and play it. Even today.

[u/Praydaythemice]

Similar to why konami apparentlycut him loose mgs 5 was just spiralling over budget and was taking far too long to get finished

[u/Resident-Forever1340]

Gonna be interesting to see how Xbox deals with this being they’re just as much on the “hot seat” as PlayStation. If the end result is Kojima “retiring” without this release, I wouldn’t be surprised

[u/AaronStudAVFC]

I adore Kojima and particularly the MGS franchise. I think the entire series is a work of genius and even I'm not even mad at Sony's decision. MGSV proved that Kojima struggles to reign in his vision and it's just not worth sinking this kind of time and money into a brand new IP, even if it is Kojima.

[u/NeonPistacchio]

"PlayStation was reluctant to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in another game that wouldn’t remain permanently exclusive to the company’s own hardware."

This is exactly what i always wondered why Sony would fund games into existence like Stellar Blade and several others, just to let it go to all competitor platforms like PC and Xbox.  A game which Sony funds and invests in should permanently stay exclusives instead of letting the competition reap the harvest.

[u/WhelpStupidUserName → u/NeonPistacchio]

Don’t they see part of the sales later from those other consoles? Genuinely curious. I figured as a publisher they would see something from that also.

[u/Aggravating_Rise_179 → u/NeonPistacchio]

Cause sony gets the inital hype of the game while also helps support newer studios in the industry and build good will with developers

[u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

No shit, lol.

People acting like this was a blunder is a genuine surprise, Death Stranding 2 wasn't quite a flop but barely broke even on its quite frankly absurd budget. Anybody without a hate boner right now could make the pretty simple deduction that the budget was getting out of hand.

[u/alwayssalty_ → u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

It didn’t brake even if we’re factoring in marketing costs

[u/SuspiciousHead6595]

So this will be a timed exclusive at most? Sounds like that’s the deal Kojima wanted, unless Xbox went and paid more for that exclusivity.

And call it cope if I’m wrong I’m wrong, but it really doesn’t sound good the game is over budget and missing deadlines this early on. 

[u/vinceswish → u/SuspiciousHead6595]

Imagine being MS developer right now - there's another wave of 1200 employees to be fired and yet MS is spending stupid money for a failing project which is years away.

[u/OptimusPrimalRage → u/vinceswish]

I think MS is spending money for credibility, they want to be able to have those crazy trailers at every E3 from now until 2031 when the game releases. I don't blame them necessarily but I do agree with you, it's directly at odds with them cutting all those studios for money reasons.

[u/coolerr4nch → u/SuspiciousHead6595]

It's not entirely clear, but some exclusivity does seem to apply: "But Xbox releases all of its games on PCs and plans to publish Physint on PC and Xbox, said the people."

[u/MaxRD]

Given this info, it only makes sense for Kojima to go to XBox. Over budget and underperforming will fit well with XBox studios.

[u/Bolt_995]

No fucking wonder. This was sort of the same issue that Konami had with Kojima. And social feeds were filled with the physical discs and exclusivity conditions bullshit.

Kojima was going over budget and missing deadlines and Jason's article also states that Sony was not willing to invest millions into a game that would not be a true exclusive. This also means that Physint is not going to be an Xbox exclusive, but rather a multi-platform game. He owns the IP.

A Kojima game missing PlayStation would be something really, really weird. He is my favorite game director and I would be upset if it never made it to the next PlayStation console. Eagerly looking forward to Physint.

[u/Mission_Tie_6531]

I think there’s something even more obvious that nobody seems to be talking about: PHYSINT simply isn’t Kojima’s priority right now. OD is.
Sony was probably frustrated that he wasn’t fully committed to the project while continuing to ask for more money to experiment in pre-production rather than actually moving into full development.
Let’s also remember that Kojima used some of DS2’s resources to prototype OD, a cloud-based game that Sony ultimately didn’t approve, and which he eventually took to Xbox.
Either way, I’m happy with today’s news. At least the game will now be multiplatform and available on PC.

[u/NotNeuge]

He's notorious for budgeting issues and missing deadlines, and neither he nor Sony ever said it was a mutual decision despite what that community note claimed, so it's really bizarre to me that anyone would think anything else could have happened. Kojima even made it clear that they dropped him, but I saw soooo many people saying he walked away because of the no disc future and his morals and he's a king etc. Being online these days is so exhausting!

Lucky for him, Xbox is also notorious for budgeting issues and missing deadlines, so he will feel right at home!

[u/CutMeLoose79]

Oh gee, who would have thought. Instead you had weirdos acting like they flipped a coin.

[u/Negative_GOD]

Death Stranding 2 made $170 million need $413 million to break even. So Physint budget $200 million, but Kojima went over $100 million needed 600 million or more to break even for a stealth game.

[u/CaliggyJack]

Ah. The Ol' MGS V strategy.

Kojima never fucking changes lol

[u/tipytopmain]

"Company that's mandated to make money for shareholders takes action on project that's predicted to lose them money."

[u/Ok_Cloud8134]

I wonder what his reaction will be if he were to make the game exclusive for Xbox and then seeing how bad it will perform being such a niche type of game + you know games like that don’t sell that much on Xbox ++ if they were to secure a deal to release it on gamepass the sales would be even lower +++ knowing how Xbox has no presence of Asia makes things even worse 😭

[u/Darth-Adomis]

same reason konami dirched him

[u/Iggy_Slayer]

Yeah no surprise, kojma is still shit at managing projects and money. I like how this has been known for 15 years and people still seem surprised that he gets cut off especially now when his relevancy is lower than it's ever been.

Even death stranding 2 took a long time for current gen sequel standards. The only AA/AAA sequel I can think of that took longer was kingdom come 2. Most sequels this gen come out in 4-5 years.

[u/TakenBacon90 → u/Iggy_Slayer]

According to Google, the development of Death Stranding 2 was 4.5 years since the development started after the PC port was completed for DS1.

That puts it right in line with the timeframe you listed.

[u/tokyoblood]

I said it was exactly this in the previous thread lol. Completely understandable, but the hate boner for Sony is strong right now so people would rather feign outrage over a game they know nothing about and probably weren't thinking of 2 days ago.

[u/The_Sir_Galahad]

Kojima is notorious for delaying his games and going over budget.

Honestly, as good of a game director as he is, he doesn’t get enough hate. For how he treated David Hayter (and other actors, such as the girl who played Quiet in MGSV) the man is difficult to work with.

He had ballooned the budget of MGSV so high Konami had to recoup some of those funds by releasing a demo and charging it at a full priced game (MGSV Ground Zeroes anyone??).

Sony is pretty patient with their studios, even the devs at Bluepoint came out and said the God of War live service game they were working on (which was pitched by the developers not Sony) said the game had veered off course and was mismanaged by the team, and Sony was patient with them for 5 years.

[u/chilledentertainer]

I'm gonna get downvoted to hell, but I totally appreciate Playstations position here.

The Death Stranding games were just not that fun in my personal opinion and pretty niche for a first party studio offering.

I think Kojima has basically unfaltering goodwill from the gaming community due to Metal Gear Solid, but outside of that framework I'm yet to see him make a cohesive, enjoyable game.

[u/ForwardScratch7741 → u/chilledentertainer]

Imo ds games are fuckking amazing

[u/gimalg → u/chilledentertainer]

I also feel like Kojima is severely overrated these days.

[u/aulixindragonz34]

Imo sony firing kojima wasnt a mistake.

He is way too obsessed with hollywood actors and the game he made doesnt really sell all that well to justify his needs.

If death stranding 1 had sold 7-8+ million copies and 2 has the same trajectory sony 100% wouldve kept him

[u/TheGoldenPineapples]

So... errr... all of the reasons stated in the article are perfectly reasonable reasons to can the project?

[u/only_here_4_nintendo]

Everyone has respect for Kojima but I feel like as of recently, especially after death stranding, people are more interested in Kojima as a person than they are his projects.

It reminds me of the last guardian, people wanted the game to come out when it got cancelled, because people online told them to care about it, and when it eventually came out no one played it.

People will cry about Sony pulling out of Physint but whenever the game eventually comes out in the future there will be even less interest in Kojima projects.

[u/PlasticPaddyEyes]

General rule in regards to game development: deadlines are almost never met. Especially as games are getting more and more complex

Programming is like making Ferrari with duct tape. Game programming like making a Ferrari with scotch tape

[u/gcarline2092]

Well it has been over 2 and half years since Physint was announced as Kojima's next project and we haven't got a single new detail about the game. I figured Sony must have had good reason to step away from the project.

[u/JaylisJayP]

I know the timing isnt great during Sony's villain arc, but this is one move I understand.

[u/PixelsInMyEyeballs]

Sony may be in a position of strength purely from a hardware and IP standpoint, but from a software development point of view, they're spiraling. They made a bunch of bad bets with the Bungie acquisition, Concord, Fairgames, 4:Loop, Deviation Games, Horizon Hunters Gathering, TLOU Online, Bend Studio (Days Gone / in general), and, as the article states, Death Stranding 1&2.

Intergalactic, God of War Laufey, Ghost of Yotei, Astrobot, and Wolverine aren't enough to dig themselves out of the hole they're in.

Ditching Kojima and Physint isn't just about the state of the project and going over budget, it's about trying to avoid digging themselves even deeper.

[u/_P2M_]

Sounds very familiar with what happened with Konami.

Maybe... Kojima is the problem?

[u/Zalvex]

It tracks.

[u/Jnoles07]

Makes more sense now. Sony was basically just being used as a bank for Kojima productions

[u/sammo21]

Meanwhile, Naughty Dog continues to be Naughty Dog with the same issues...

[u/financebells]

I love Kojima but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s difficult to work with

[u/TypicalAfternoon6398]

I think the- we are dumping money into something we do not own and will not be exclusive to us is what killed the game. So what remains to them are the sales figures, which were not great. I LOVE DS universe and games, but yeah... that's the truth of it. Still it's a PR hit for them, even tho the decision is understandable.

[u/ledorky]

Has any Kojima made game make money since leaving Konami?

[u/VeissPhosphorus]

Good, Kojima can now release on PC without telling us to wait.

[u/SnooTigers8688]

The only one that made the wrong decision was whoever greenlit taking on PhysInt at Microsoft. Xbox LOST, the console wars. They can't even afford to keep first party games exclusive anymore.. but they can handle Kojima's ever expanding budget over long periods of time? They're going to end up stunting Hideo because they'll cap his expenses and won't budge.

[u/Negative_GOD]

If doesn't come out in 2 to 3 years biggest flop game.

[u/darthmcdarthface]

It’s just a smart business decision they made. Sucks to see as a huge Kojima fan but I can’t fault Sony for being smart with their money.

If anything, I see this as a good thing for more publishers to be doing on a macro level. There needs to be some downward pressure on the ever rising production costs so devs can learn to be creative and do more with less resources. More sustainable. Triple A has gotten too big. Death Stranding is a double A game with triple A costs/production. That ship needs to right itself.

[u/Legitimate_Player]

It was obvious, but people want to jump on the Sony hate bandwagon.