Hideo Kojima is moving his next game, Physint, from PlayStation to Xbox. Microsoft announced the shift Wednesday in a blog post. The post framed the Physint Xbox deal as the start of a wider partnership. That partnership also covers film and television projects with Kojima Productions.
Sony‘s PlayStation Studios had published Physint since Kojima Productions first revealed the action-espionage title. Xbox already holds publishing rights to the studio’s next release, OD, a horror game made with filmmaker Jordan Peele that still has no launch date. Physint was set to follow OD until PlayStation canceled the project in June.
A three-decade run with PlayStation ends
Kojima’s history with Sony’s hardware runs back to 1998, when Metal Gear Solid launched on the original PlayStation. After leaving Konami in 2015, Kojima Productions built its first two games, Death Stranding and its sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, as PlayStation titles. Physint was unveiled at a PlayStation State of Play event in September 2024 as a teaser for a new action-espionage project, before Sony canceled it this past June.
Why PlayStation walked away
Kojima addressed the cancellation in a statement posted on X. “As confirmed earlier through our official channels, in mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project. PHYSINT is an important project both to me personally and to KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. Determined to keep the project alive, we have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner.” He added that development continued without interruption during the search for a new publisher.
PlayStation issued its own statement. “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS on its project PHYSINT. We continue to have great admiration for Hideo Kojima’s vision for the game. Our relationship remains strong after three decades of industry-leading, genre-defining creative cooperation.” Neither company detailed the reasoning behind the decision.
How the Physint Xbox deal came together
Talks between Kojima and Xbox began earlier this year. That was not long after Asha Sharma became Xbox CEO, replacing Phil Spencer. Sharma and Kojima met in person several times over the following months. They discussed his creative plans and how the two sides could work together across platforms, including television and film development tied to his properties.
The relationship between Xbox and Kojima Productions started with OD, the psychological horror game the studio revealed at an Xbox Games Showcase as a collaboration with Jordan Peele. That project already established Xbox as a publisher willing to back Kojima’s higher-concept ideas without the decades of history Sony had built with him through Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding.
“Creators have choices about where and how they bring their ideas to life,” Sharma said. “We’re honored that Kojima-san has chosen Xbox to work with Kojima Productions on ‘Physint.’ His ambition to challenge conventions reflects the kind of creativity we want to support at Xbox.”
Kojima described the agreement as an extension of the OD partnership. “As we move forward with the development of ‘Physint,’ we remain committed to redefining the action-espionage genre for players around the world.”
A bigger bet on Kojima’s audience in Asia
Xbox has struggled for years to build market share in Japan and other parts of Asia, where PlayStation and Nintendo dominate console sales. Kojima remains one of the region’s best-known game creators. Bringing Physint to Xbox gives Microsoft a direct line to an audience it has had trouble reaching on its own.
The expanded relationship now spans games, film, and television. That gives Xbox a reason to be seen as more than a hardware alternative in markets where the brand carries little weight against PlayStation and Nintendo.
The move to Xbox also fits a pattern Sharma has pushed since taking over. Xbox has spent the past two years publishing its own games on rival consoles, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Hi-Fi Rush on PlayStation 5. Signing Kojima, a developer PlayStation fans associate closely with Sony’s brand, extends that multiplatform approach into securing exclusive access to outside talent rather than just releasing Xbox’s own titles everywhere.
The deal lands amid PlayStation’s physical media shift
The Physint Xbox deal comes weeks after PlayStation said it will stop producing physical discs for new titles starting in 2028. That decision drew criticism from collectors and retailers. Kojima’s exit from the platform is unrelated to that announcement, according to both companies. Still, the timing has added to broader questions about PlayStation’s direction under its current leadership.
Film and television plans remain unformed
Xbox has not detailed which TV or film projects it plans to develop with Kojima Productions. Death Stranding is already in development as a film at A24. Kojima has spoken publicly about wanting to work more across mediums. In a 2024 interview with Variety about his decision to sign with talent agency WME, he described the growing overlap between game and film production.
“Back in the day, movies and games were two different worlds. It was like analog vs digital. It didn’t mix well, like oil and water. Nowadays, movies are also digital, like being shot on digital cameras instead of film.” He pointed to a shared toolkit behind both mediums. “There are movies that use Unreal Engine to create their backgrounds and environments. They also use performance capture like we do, so the technology is almost the same up to a certain point.”
No launch date has been set for Physint on Xbox. Kojima Productions has not said whether the game will appear on other platforms as well. Development continues under a new publisher, while the film and television side of the partnership still has no announced projects attached to it.
What is confirmed is the scope of the arrangement. Xbox now publishes both of Kojima Productions’ next two games, OD and Physint, and has a standing agreement to develop unspecified film and television projects with the studio. For a company that spent years defined mainly by its hardware and subscription service, tying itself to one of gaming’s most recognizable auteurs across three mediums is a distinct change in strategy.