At 10:30 p.m. Eastern on September 9, PlayStation posted that it was leaving Physint; one minute later, Xbox chief Asha Sharma announced a new publishing home for Hideo Kojima’s espionage game. Kojima then explained what had happened behind the scenes. According to the director, PlayStation Studios unexpectedly sent a cancellation notice in mid-June, setting off three months of negotiations. Xbox will now publish the project, and Kojima says development continues. [1]
Physint Survives a Three-Month Search
Kojima described the June notice as unexpected. He said his independent studio had spent the following three months approaching potential partners, seeking advice and negotiating with people across different fields before reaching an agreement with Xbox. Physint matters to him personally, he added, as well as to Kojima Productions. His statement makes the project’s survival the immediate consequence of the deal: the studio found another publisher willing to take it forward after PlayStation withdrew. [2]
Xbox already works with Kojima Productions. The companies are developing OD, Kojima’s horror project, so their new agreement extends a relationship that was already in place when the search began. Still, an existing collaboration did not make the transition automatic: Kojima’s account describes months of work before the studio settled on its new partner. He has not disclosed the other companies involved in those discussions or the terms they considered. [2, 3]
Kojima’s message included a direct assurance: development is “ongoing and will continue moving forward.” He offered no revised release schedule. [3]
PlayStation Leaves the Project
PlayStation confirmed its withdrawal in its own statement, saying it had made the difficult decision to end its collaboration on Physint after consideration. Sony gave no reason. It also praised Kojima’s vision and said its relationship with the director “remains strong,” leaving room for future work with the independent studio. Sony’s confirmation establishes that it has left the project; the description of an unexpected cancellation notice comes from Kojima’s account of the June communication. [2, 4]
Sony and Kojima have a long history. Metal Gear Solid arrived on the original PlayStation in 1998, and Sony became Kojima Productions’ first partner after the studio went independent, publishing Death Stranding and its sequel as timed PlayStation exclusives. Physint would have extended that relationship into another series. Sony and Kojima announced it in January 2024, when the director’s return to action espionage carried the backing of the company most closely associated with his earlier work. The latest statements end that specific publishing arrangement while both sides continue to discuss their broader relationship in positive terms. Neither side names a replacement Sony collaboration in the statements reproduced by the reporting. [2, 4]
Why did Sony withdraw? The companies have not explained. Polygon discusses possible budget pressures and Death Stranding 2 sales, but presents those connections as analysis. Neither Sony nor Kojima identifies sales, costs or a creative disagreement as the cause. [4]
Xbox Adds Games, Film and Television
Sharma called the agreement “a big moment for Xbox.” The company will publish Physint and broaden its work with Kojima Productions into film and television, giving the partnership a scope that reaches beyond the two games now attached to it. Xbox’s announcement describes future storytelling opportunities, although it does not name a film, series, production schedule or distribution partner. Those details remain open. [2]
Is Xbox a publisher? Yes: it is taking that role on this project, while Kojima Productions remains the developer (the studio making the game). OD provides another example of an upcoming Kojima title with Xbox backing. The agreement does not announce an acquisition of Kojima Productions. PlayStation’s own statement describes Kojima’s studio as independent, and the reporting presents the new arrangement as a partnership between the two companies. [2, 3]
Kojima’s cinematic ambitions predate the switch. At the original reveal, a drone camera pulled back from Kojima and PlayStation Studios leader Hermen Hulst to show the Columbia Pictures studio lot in Hollywood, putting Sony’s film business directly into the introduction of its new espionage project. Xbox now promises collaboration across the same media, but the announcement does not explain whether Columbia Pictures will remain involved. Eurogamer raises that question without reporting an answer. [1, 5]
Kojima Returns to Action Espionage
Physint takes Kojima back to the genre that established his reputation through Metal Gear. Kojima Productions introduced it as a new intellectual property (a new creative property), and the director has described an ambition to combine the experience of a game and a movie. It is a separate project from Metal Gear. Reports call it a spiritual successor because of its creator and action-espionage direction, without identifying it as an official continuation of that series. [3, 4]
Eurogamer names Charlee Fraser, Don Lee and Minami Hamabe among the actors attached to the project, and reports that Kojima previously discussed casting, scans and performance capture sessions beginning in late 2026. Those were earlier production plans. The publisher-change statements do not provide an updated timetable for that work, so the reported schedule should not become a fresh promise about how quickly Xbox can bring the game to market. [5]
Kojima has also connected his return to espionage with a period of illness and surgery that led him to reconsider his priorities, according to Eurogamer. His public description of Physint as personally important follows that earlier explanation. Meanwhile, OD explores horror. Xbox’s expanded partnership now covers both directions, although the companies have shared little about how the espionage game’s systems or its cinematic elements will work in practice. [2, 5]
Platforms and Release Timing Remain Open
Physint has a publisher, but the statements reproduced in these reports do not establish its final platform list, price or launch date. Xbox publishing does not, by itself, settle exclusivity. The earlier PlayStation arrangement cannot serve as confirmation of a future PlayStation release after Sony’s withdrawal, either. Players waiting to learn which hardware will run the game still need a specific platform announcement from Xbox or Kojima Productions. [2, 5]
Kojima previously suggested a long wait. Eurogamer recalls his 2025 estimate of another five or six years before release, which was an estimate made before the newly announced publishing change rather than a dated launch commitment. The game remains in development. Reports that point toward a particular future console or turn that earlier estimate into a fixed release year go beyond the details in the companies’ statements. [5]
Unreleased games also attract clues from outside their official announcements, as PerEXP Teamworks covered in its report on leaked Steam achievement lists for unreleased games. Here, the next concrete milestones would be a confirmed platform list, a production update and an explanation of how Kojima’s game-and-film ambition will work. Xbox and Kojima Productions have yet to supply those details in the announcements covered by these reports. [2, 5]
- ONLINE NEWS Gach, E. (2026, September 10). Xbox swoops in to save Kojima’s stealth action game Physint after PlayStation tried to cancel it. Kotaku. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS McEvoy, S. (2026, September 10). Xbox to publish Kojima Productions’ Physint after it “unexpectedly received notice” from PlayStation that it would cancel the project. GamesIndustry.biz. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Warby, N. (2026, September 10). Hideo Kojima reveals PHYSINT was canceled by PlayStation before Xbox saved it. Dexerto. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Welsh, O. (2026, September 10). Kojima’s Physint dramatically dropped by PlayStation, picked up by Xbox. Polygon. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Peppiatt, D. (2026, September 10). Hideo Kojima’s Physint now being published by Xbox, as PlayStation severs ties with Kojima Productions and Microsoft steps in to take over. Eurogamer. [Article Link]
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