Physint: The Reasons Behind Sony's Big Refusal

In the collective imagination, the name of Hideo Kojima has been linked to PlayStation since the days of the first, legendary Metal Gear Solid: a partnership that continued for decades and even persisted when the Japanese game designer left Konami to create his own studio. Given these premises, Sony's decision to end its partnership with Kojima Productions, giving up on publishing Physint, was bound to cause a stir.

Sony's Reasons

But why did it come to this? A report from Bloomberg lists the reasons that led Sony to make this decision. Apparently, the Japanese company was not satisfied with the sales performance of the two Death Stranding titles, both of which fell below expectations. Added to this are various concerns related to the Physint project.

According to the report, Kojima Productions had already missed deadlines: we know that the studio had difficulties with casting, but also that actual production only started after the release of Death Stranding 2, so it had been in progress for less than a year when Sony made its decision. Another reason is the budget, because apparently an overrun is looming.

Sony therefore chose to back out, rather than invest hundreds of millions in a project for which it could not guarantee exclusivity: just look at the example of Death Stranding, which also landed on Xbox and PC because the intellectual property remained in Kojima's hands. (Side note: but does this perhaps imply that Physint will also be multiplatform? We'll have to wait and see...).