PlayStation Drops Kojima’s Physint, and Xbox Becomes Its New Partner
By Jaymo | Today at 2:09pmWell, that is certainly one way to wake up to some gaming news.
PlayStation has officially stepped away from its collaboration with Kojima Productions on Physint, Hideo Kojima’s upcoming action-espionage game. And this is not even the entire story, because Kojima has confirmed that Xbox is now partnering with the studio to continue the project.
The change was announced today by both companies. Kojima revealed that the switch happened after PlayStation unexpectedly told Kojima Productions in June that they would cancel the project. So it is not really new, but we are guessing they needed a few months to find a new partner for the game. And Xbox did step in at the right time, it seems!
PlayStation Is No Longer Involved With Physint
So, what happened exactly here? Physint was supposed to be the successor to Metal Gear Solid, and it is from Kojima, so it is a pretty good game to bet on and to keep, from a business-only point of view. Yet PlayStation Studios announced early this morning that they had made the “difficult decision” to step away from their collaboration with Kojima Productions on Physint.
An update from PlayStation Studios: 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.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 10, 2026
Our relationship…
The company did not provide a reason for the decision, but from the looks of it, the relationship with Kojima and the studio remains strong. PlayStation said they continue to have “great admiration” for Hideo Kojima’s vision and pointed toward the three decades of creative cooperation with the legendary developer.
That is certainly a very diplomatic way of putting it. But when you look at Kojima’s statement, it sounds a little bit different.
A second statement came shortly after the PlayStation one, where Kojima revealed that Kojima Productions received a notice from PlayStation in mid-June that the Physint project would be cancelled. He was not willing to let the project die, spending the following three months searching for a new partner. And eventually, they found one.
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… pic.twitter.com/rQqhxAnb7N
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 10, 2026
Xbox Is Taking Over the Partnership
So yes, Xbox is taking over. Kojima confirmed that they teamed up with Xbox, saying the two companies share a common vision for the future. The partnership expands on the relationship between Xbox and Kojima Productions that already exists through OD, the studio’s mysterious horror project being developed with Xbox. Xbox itself confirmed that they will partner with Kojima Productions to publish Physint, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma saying the company is honored that Kojima chose Xbox for the project.
So despite PlayStation’s involvement ending, Physint itself is very much alive, and development is continuing, but it will just continue on the Xbox side, and not PlayStation.
Physint was originally revealed as a new action-espionage project from Kojima Productions, with Kojima describing it as a return to the genre he helped define during his time working on Metal Gear. We still know surprisingly little about the game, and there is also no release date or launch window at this point, so do not expect to be playing it anytime soon. OD is supposed to come first, so we probably have to wait a few years before we see anything from Physint. And seeing Xbox step in after PlayStation walked away from it is one of the more unexpected changes we have seen in a while. It does raise the question about what PlayStation is really planning, given the number of suspicious decisions they have made lately.
For now, the important part is that Physint is not cancelled. It is just no longer a PlayStation project, and Kojima has found a new partner because Xbox is officially on board, and development is continuing. Considering this is Hideo Kojima we are talking about, I am sure the story behind how all of this happened is going to be almost as interesting as the game itself.
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