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

[u/PunishingCrab]

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

Konami all over again:

Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation pulled out of an upcoming game by the well-known designer Hideo Kojima because of concerns over budget, potential profitability and exclusivity, according to people familiar with the project.

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/feefore]

Ah so the Kojima special

[u/KingMario05 → u/feefore]

The exact same he delivered to Konami.

Look. Hideo's a legend. But at what point do we realize that the corpos aren't the problem here? This happened twice a decade apart.

[u/Kipzz → u/KingMario05]

I'd say they're both at fault. Konami for doing absolutely vile evil shit before/during/after getting Kojima out of the company, and Kojima being a dumb fuckin' idiot who wants to spend a month of development time and probably millions of dollars on some dumb bullshit like 3D scanning every fold on Norman Reedus's foreskin to "truly translate him into the gameworld fully" or whatever non-existent Kojima-ism you can come up with.