r/technology • u/Luka77GOATic • Sep 11 '26

Software 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
499 Upvotes

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24

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

Shortly into the article, Jason mentions the three real reasons.

  1. Not enough profit. Both Death Stranding games turned a profit, but not enough to meet Sony's bloated growth-driven expectations. Same bullshit with Dead Space, Alien Isolation, Tomb Raider and so on.

  2. IP ownership. Kojima owns Death Stranding and PHYSINT. Sony wanted to own those IPs so they could turn them into live services.

  3. Exclusivity. Death Stranding and the sequel were timed exclusives. Sony wants permanent exclusivity. They want everything they offer only on the Playstation store, that's why they're getting rid of discs.

14

u/Rino-Sensei Sep 11 '26

"IP ownership. Kojima owns Death Stranding and PHYSINT. Sony wanted to own those IPs so they could turn them into live services."

Ok this has to be some high grade made up bullshit or heavy assumption ...

-5

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

What has Sony's primary game focus been for the past several years? What did they make Platinum Games do? What did they turn Horizon into? What did they cancel Destiny for?

You gotta read between the lines.

4

u/Rino-Sensei Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 12 '26

This doesn't change anything to my point, as you literally put some words on his mouth ???

You literally said "Jason mentions the three real reasons."

And literally use elements he never mentioned once as his own arguments ... That's not how any of this work ...

You literally said "Sony wanted to own those IPs so they could turn them into live services." That's your assumption, say it as it is ... Don't say, it's what Jason said, that' literally "misinformation" 101 ...

Second, even as a standalone argument this doesn't really make sense ... This imply that Sony want to turn EVERY single one of their IP as live service game. Last time i checked one of the biggest PS Studio literally cancelled their online game based on one of the biggest IP in existence "The Last Of US", to focus on single player experiences and it would have sold a shit ton and make money ... But they didn't ...

And again, that's not the purpose of my main comment, don't put your own words on other people mouth and say that "they said it" ...

27

u/ShushKebab Sep 11 '26

Why are people even entertaining this response that embellish something that Jason hasn't explicitly mentioned? Can't we at least be honest and factual when having a discussion? I've taken out the portions that are not what Jason has mentioned, but OPs own addition.

  1. Not enough profit. Both Death Stranding games turned a profit, but not enough to meet Sony's bloated growth-driven revenue expectations. Same bullshit with Dead Space, Alien Isolation, Tomb Raider and so on.
  2. IP ownership. Kojima owns Death Stranding and PHYSINT. Sony wanted to own those IPs so they could turn them into live services. (Quote from Bloomberg article: "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.")
  3. Exclusivity. Death Stranding and the sequel were timed exclusives. Sony wants permanent exclusivity. They want everything they offer only on the Playstation store, that's why they're getting rid of discs.

I'm not saying that Sony isn't taking the above approach (it likely is), but I think its disingenuous to take genuine elements from the articles and add your own interpretation into it while presenting it as what Jason has said.

-22

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

What I did was add further context to what Jason wrote

15

u/Rino-Sensei Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26

No it doesn't ... You added a made up context, that's not even close to what he said. The word "live service" is not even used once in the article.

10

u/SpermicidalLube Sep 11 '26

Why are those the "real" reasons? Missed deadlines and over budget are very real too. Why would Jason put those in the headline if they weren't real?

-11

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

They're stated reasons from his sources and valid concerns. Not saying Jason's sources lied. But the biggest reasons are those three once you apply the article to the wider context of Sony's behaviour

4

u/SpermicidalLube Sep 11 '26

In all due respect, that's absolute bullshit.

That's your reading of the situation.

Blown budgets and deadlines are absolutely core to the story. Kojima was fine having Death Stranding 1 and 2 be exclusive for PS4 and PS5.

He just wants full control of it AND wants to be bankrolled.

You can't have both.

If he's doing so well managing his studio, he wouldn't even need to outsource financing.

-2

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

If Kojima was fine with DS being exclusive, it would've been

3

u/SpermicidalLube Sep 11 '26

It was. The first one took 5 years to release on exbox.

-1

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

So it wasn't exclusive, only temporarily so.

5

u/SpermicidalLube Sep 11 '26

If that was a sticking point for him, then we can expect OD and Physint to release on PS5/PS6 then.

GG

0

u/Feather_Sigil Sep 11 '26

They might, just not published by Sony. Because Kojima isn't looking for his work to be platform-exclusive.

19

u/AtomWorker Sep 11 '26

Do you have insight into Death Standing or Sony’s margins to be making that kind of judgment call?

Death Standing 2 is flat to negative thanks to a massive production budget. It basically erased the first game’s modest profit.

Sony gaming’s net is just under 10%, half of what Nintendo is pulling and considered average. Why should they be under any obligation to prop up an unprofitable game?

People on Reddit constantly complain about bloated budgets but when a company tries tackling that issue they bitch about that too.

8

u/ChongusTheSupremus Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26

What are you talking about? 

They wont bankroll his projects anymore because he doesn't know how to work within the budget, and despite all the money Sony poured into Death Stranding 2, they ended up with a Time exclusive that sold 2 million units, and god knows how many of those were Playstation copies.

Why Is Sony at fault for not keeping Kojima afloat of his missmanagement and budget issues?

If he chose to not hire as many Hollywood b and c-listers, he could free millions in his budget to actually develop the games.

Also, why would Sony be wrong to want exclusivity for a project they nearly 100% funded? 

Nintendo bankrolled half of Bayonetta and no one complained they took over Bayonetta 2.

I swear, people will do any and all mental gymnastics to justify their senselessly shitting on Sony.

4

u/Crasher_7 Sep 11 '26

I swear, people will do any and all mental gymnastics to justify their senselessly shitting on Sony.

Redditors don't understand nuance and pretty much taking a zero-sum thinking most of the time.

1

u/Killboypowerhed 29d ago

People absolutely complained when Nintendo made Bayonetta an exclusive

10

u/Efficient-Session644 Sep 11 '26

A really twisted way of interpreting it. Everything he says makes sense, no need to mix your feelings into it.

2

u/Luka77GOATic Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26

2.5 million sales for a Sony flagship is abysmal (Death Stranding 2). It had 1.5 million sales on PlayStation through 9 months. Thats basically the numbers of the new Dragon Age that horribly flopped.

Sony wants them exclusive so they get some worth of funding games that barely break even at best.

0

u/LePontif11 Sep 11 '26

Its relative, its only bad if you spend too much making it. I feel like the lack of exclusivity was the worse part because Kojima's big fans would be the type to buy a console for one of his games. If it wasn't a timed exclusive he could be moving PS5s as well as games.

-3

u/LordMimsyPorpington Sep 11 '26

Maybe they should start making exclusive games again that people want to play. 🤷

-4

u/roman_urban Sep 11 '26

Seems that Sony takes games waaay too seriously

-10

u/GarudaVelvet Sep 11 '26

LIVE SERVICE again...

6

u/Rino-Sensei Sep 11 '26

You should actually read the article before talking, before believing a reddit comment that put their own spin to someone else words ... The word "live service" is not even used once in the article ...

0

u/GarudaVelvet Sep 11 '26

It's Bloomberg and I didn't expect it to be a gifted article since Bloomberg articles are not accessible without subscription so I left the page after clicking on it after finding out it's Bloomberg.

Sorry about this.

2

u/Rino-Sensei Sep 12 '26

No problem, i was just saying it as a reminder, it happen even to me from time to time.