Xbox takes over Physint publishing from PlayStation after Sony tried to cancel Kojima project

Xbox has replaced PlayStation as publisher of Physint, Hideo Kojima's stealth action project, in a switch announced by Kojima, Xbox, and PlayStation. Kojima said on X that his studio was notified of PlayStation's decision in mid-June and has since been "determined" to keep the project alive by searching for a new publisher, according to PCGamesN.

Physint was announced in early 2024 at Sony's January State of Play and is widely seen as a spiritual successor to the Metal Gear Solid franchise. It was previously reported to be built on the Decima Engine, the technology created by Guerrilla Games, which sits inside PlayStation Studios, and used in titles including Death Stranding 2. Whether that engine arrangement can continue under an Xbox-published title remains unclear, PCGamesN reports.

PlayStation has not explained the reasoning behind stepping away. Its statement on X said only that the decision followed "careful consideration," leaving the specifics of the split unaddressed. The publisher change had been in progress for months before the public announcements, with the mid-June notification marking the point at which Kojima Productions began looking for a replacement.

The switch raises the odds that Physint reaches PC. Sony has spent recent years porting former console exclusives such as God of War, The Last of Us, and Uncharted to PC, but PCGamesN reported earlier this summer that Sony plans to end PC ports of the single-player, narrative-driven games it publishes, with only online multiplayer titles still arriving on the platform. An Xbox-published Physint would not be bound by that policy.

Xbox's own strategy introduces a different complication. New Xbox boss Asha Sharma has promised to bring back console exclusivity for selected titles the company publishes. Under that approach, PCs would still receive such games on day one, but consoles including the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 could be excluded. Whether Physint falls into that console-exclusive category has not been decided publicly.

A release date remains distant regardless of who publishes. Kojima previously said the game would take him "another five or six years" to complete, which points to a launch somewhere beyond 2030. PCGamesN describes the project as still in its early days, with more information expected in the coming years now that Xbox is on board.

The open questions are the engine situation, the final platform lineup, and whether Xbox's exclusivity plans will apply to Physint. None of those have been answered by the parties involved, and PlayStation has given no further detail on why it moved to cancel the project in June.