Sony has severed ties with Hideo Kojima, pulling the plug on the upcoming espionage action game Physint during a remote video call. The sudden cancellation left the independent studio facing financial ruin before Microsoft stepped in to bankroll the project. But the abrupt split reportedly cost Kojima Productions access to the Decima game engine.
In an interview with IGN, Hideo Kojima explained how Sony leadership blindsided him while he was traveling for business. Executives delivered the termination news over a Zoom call, informing him that the publisher would no longer fund the development of Physint. The message arrived without prior warning, leaving the veteran game director struggling to comprehend what happened.
They said they could no longer fund the development of Physint. I was stunned. And I asked again: What did you just say? I could not wrap my head around it. And I was not sure I heard correctly because of the shock.
Kojima admitted that while studio closures and project cancellations have hit the wider video game industry hard, he believed this particular production was completely safe from corporate cuts.
I know that many studios are closing, games are being canceled, and I understand the situation in the industry. But I thought with Physint everything was fine. That Physint was safe. So I was surprised. But not just surprised: we did not understand the reason. I was not angry or sad, my first thought was: What will happen to my studio now?
The sudden loss of funding created an immediate threat to the survival of Kojima Productions. Because the company operates independently on project contracts, hiring is tied directly to active production pipelines. The studio was balancing 2 major games, OD and Physint. Losing financial support for half the slate meant Kojima either had to lay off the entire production crew or risk bankruptcy within months.
Kojima spent the next 3 months searching for an industry partner willing to fund the project. He ultimately struck a deal with Microsoft, securing the necessary budget to keep his staff employed and development moving forward. However, the fallout with Sony came with a heavy technical cost. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Kojima Productions lost its license to the proprietary Decima engine, which powered both Death Stranding games, forcing the studio to look elsewhere for its future technology.
