Hideo Kojima on Physint's Timeline and Future Ambitions
With the gaming universe eagerly anticipating the next game from Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which is coming in approximately a month's time, of course, minds automatically turn to what follows. While games like OD and stealth-action title Physint are known to be in production at Kojima Productions, the celebrated director has provided fans with some idea of their release periods, in the case of Physint.
The Physint Wait: Five to Six Years' Wait
In an interview with the French magazine Le Film Français last month, Kojima himself placed his return to the spy genre, Physint, far away. "Apart from Death Stranding 2, there is Physint in development," Kojima stated. "That'll take me another five or six years."
This timeline, revealed when discussing his future and next year's big-screen interpretation of Death Stranding, virtually guarantees that Physint is in the works for the next gen consoles and, perhaps, a PlayStation 6 launch. When it was first revealed more than a year prior, Sony described it as a "next-gen" spy game, and this revised timeline confirms that moniker.
Filming Ambushes and the Passage of Time Forward
Kojima, now 61, also described how he had long dreamed of directing a film. "Maybe after that [Physint], I could finally make up my mind to do a film," he said. "I've spent my whole life with movies. To direct would be a testament to it. Also, I am getting older, and I want to do it while I am still young."
This ambition, along with the extended period of development for Physint, paves the way for Kojima's second decade. By the release of Physint, he would be in his late sixties. The status of his other mentioned project, OD (in production with Jordan Peele for Xbox), was not addressed within this particular interview, and therefore its place within this timeline is yet to be speculated upon. It could be in that five-to-six-year period or even later, maybe during the time when he transitioned into work in film.
The Height of His Work
Kojima has referred to Physint as "the culmination of my work," with a game that will blur the line between interactive entertainment and movie, breaking promises in look, story, theme, and performance. This has already materialized in his A-list cast and filmic-style Death Stranding titles.
With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach releasing June 26th on PlayStation 5, it's a big one. For fans of Kojima's own style of game-making, it's a chance to catch his next vision before waiting out the long haul to Physint, and before he may shift his creative juices more in the direction of film. The world of games will be watching with anticipation as this mighty creator investigates the next phase in his fertile career.
