Back in June, we saw reports of famed video games director Hideo Kojima struggling to find a publishing partner for the upcoming horror title OD, until former Xbox head Phil Spencer picked it up. As it turns out, it would not be the only game that Kojima would face issues with. Physint, the Kojima Productions “action espionage” game that would likely be the spiritual successor to the Metal Gear series, was supposed to be published by PlayStation, but both parties have come out to say that they’ve parted ways.
PlayStation was the first to make the announcement, saying that “after careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with Kojima Productions on its project Physint”. But Kojima would later post via his X account that the Sony subsidiary decided to cancel the project back in mid-June, and he has been scrambling to find a new publisher since. Xbox would once again be the name in the industry to, er, understand Kojima’s vision, as it were. And so new Xbox head Asha Sharma announced that the console market’s green team will be the one to publish Physint, as it will OD.
For Xbox, though, it looks like it wants to do more than just publish another Kojima Productions game. In a post in the Xbox Wire blog, the Microsoft division says that “in addition to OD and Physint, this relationship will also extend beyond games”, with the two ”collaborating across film and television to bring new stories to broader audiences”. And for those who have followed Kojima since his Metal Gear days, you’d know that this is a dream come true for the man, if nothing else.
While it may not be the cause for the breakdown of the Physint deal, PlayStation and Kojima have expressed completely opposite views on physical media. The former made the infamous announcement of killing physical games back in July, and the latter has since voiced his support for physical media. He also shared his worries on the state of ownership when the media world inevitably moves towards streaming.
(Source: PlayStation, Asha Sharma, Xbox, Hideo Kojima)
