Kojima Recalls Sony Physint Shocker, Denies Studio Crisis

Kojima Productions says it is healthy and profitable as Hideo Kojima describes Sony's June funding withdrawal and his game-saving pitch to Xbox.

In his first interview since Physint's publisher switch, Kojima told IGN that Sony summoned him to a June Zoom call and said it could no longer fund the Metal Gear-inspired espionage game. His mind went blank, he says, and he initially feared for the studio's survival: with only two projects under contract, losing Physint could have meant cutting staff or collapsing under bank loans. He kept the news to himself, president Shinji Hirano, and talent development head Aki Saito until a direction was found.

Kojima feared an exodus after moving Physint staff onto OD, telling IGN "I thought people would leave" — but no one did, and he found the team happily building pitch materials the following week. According to IGN, work on concept, casting, actor scans, and enemy AI experiments continued throughout, though only a small core team remains on Physint while others stay on OD. He insists there was no meaningful delay.

Rock Paper Shotgun reports that Kojima Productions issued a statement responding to Bloomberg's report alleging exceeded budgets, missed deadlines, and weaker-than-expected Death Stranding sales. The studio said none of the claims came from an official or on-the-record source and urged readers to take them "with a dose of scepticism", while confirming the studio is in a "healthy, profitable state" and its relationship with PlayStation remains strong.

Physint now moves forward with Xbox, after Kojima says he pitched it not as a lone game but as a multi-media IP spanning film, TV, anime, and music — a pitch Xbox reportedly called unlike anything it had seen. The switch means a former PlayStation exclusive may never ship on PlayStation at all. Kojima says the engine is undecided but Xbox has promised deep technical support, and he frames the fight to save the studio as a proof that independent creators can succeed at scale.