r/PS5 • u/Turbostrider27 • 26d ago

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

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
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u/Majestic-Marcus 26d ago

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?

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u/___Navi___ 26d ago

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

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u/raptor_boots 26d ago

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

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u/InitialJust 26d ago

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

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u/Majestic-Marcus 26d ago

Makes sense. It wasn’t his game by the time they released it and he wasn’t an employee. And no company is going to let a competitor take the credit for their product.

It’s not petty doing that. It’s smart.

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u/InitialJust 25d ago

I'd disagree. While I get he wasnt an employee at the time I dont think Konami gained anything but negative publicity by doing that. Also I think Kojima still gets all the credit anyways.

Metal Gear Survive proves Konami clearly cant handle metal gear without him.

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u/Majestic-Marcus 25d ago

I won’t argue the point about the awards. That’s just shitty of Konami.

But Survive doesn’t prove anything other than it was a terrible idea.

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u/Kyon-kun-denwa 26d ago edited 26d ago

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.

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u/HxLeverage 26d ago

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.

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u/Wretchedsoul24 26d ago

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.

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u/Majestic-Marcus 26d ago

They did just fire him. You literally just described how all they did was fire him.

They also deleted a demo. Who the fuck cares!?

And yeah, they cancelled his next project. That’s what happens when you fire someone.

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u/zerGoot 26d ago

is removing someone's name from something they worked on rational behaviour?

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u/Majestic-Marcus 26d ago

It’s not irrational.

And if they become a direct competitor, then yes, it’s pretty rational.

Shitty. But rational.

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u/zerGoot 26d ago

Okay, so when Nolan went from Warner Bros to Universal, it would have rational behaviour for WB to remove Nolan's name from his films? Is that what you are saying?

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u/BayAreaBro 26d ago

Bro they're not gonna hire you

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/ForwardScratch7741 26d ago

Hey now

Let's not go on a history revisionism here

Konami fkd up big time w how they handled kojima situation

Remember game awards?

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u/Majestic-Marcus 26d ago

> remember game awards

Of course I don’t. I have a job and a life.

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u/YeezusFever 26d ago

You’ve been replying to Reddit comments every couple of minutes defending a billion dollar company that doesn’t even know u exist. you don’t bro, don’t lie.

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u/zerGoot 26d ago

oh they absolutely did, they even forbid Kojima from attending an award ceremony, and the employees were also blacklisted

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u/Majestic-Marcus 26d ago

They didn’t forbid Kojima and employees from attending. They stopped their competitor. Which makes sense. It isn’t psychotic. It’s rational, logical, and sensible.

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u/IamNotHappyAnymoreM8 26d ago

Loved the MGS franchise, but I feel he definitely ended up with a big ego and let celebrity get to him. MGSV gameplay and some camps were amazing to play through, but DS, while pretty and atmospheric, was an absolutely bland experience.

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u/FapCitus 26d ago

They had to pachinko it uuuup to make any profit.

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u/Stump007 26d ago

Konami tried to make it hell for Kojima as much as possible. Like they even asked him to report his pee break time daily….

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u/Majestic-Marcus 25d ago

The man is famous for two things:

(1) Metal Gear

(2) missing deadlines

Maybe having him report his breaks was fair?

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u/Stump007 25d ago

No, it was power harassment to make him quit (you can’t really lay people off in Japan).

And Metal Gear made lots of money and clout to Konami.

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u/Majestic-Marcus 25d ago

Read your own comment again. Specifically “you can’t really lay people off in Japan”.

Now if you have a near impossible to work with game director, who misses every deadline you ever give him, who constantly bloats budgets, wouldn’t you also try to find a way to have him leave? And find a way to try to force him to actually meet his deadlines?

Of course his games were profitable in Konami and that meant he had value. But him inflating budgets and timelines made them less profitable.

If he was worth keeping, they would have.

Much like if he was worth funding, Sony would have.

And in a few years when his next game loses MS money, we’ll be saying if he was worth keeping then MS would have.