While PlayStation is on a streak of one bad decision after the other, I'd give them benefit of the doubt here.
Kojima likes to work unhinged on grand ideas with a tall budget which may stick or not stick at all. So may be Sony didn't like the direction of Physint and decided to dump it.
While Sony may be wrong in judging the game in its early stage, the replacement publisher, Microsoft, has solid track record of terrible taste at creating exclusives.
This situation seems very similar to Konami's frustrations with him a decade ago. Don't get me wrong, Konami too seemed hell-bent on driving into the ground, but Kojima does have a reputation for going over time and over budget. In a world of tightening belts, I wonder if Sony execs felt the same frustration as their counterparts did. We'll see how he fairs with Xbox, which seems even more eager than the other two to shutter things these days.
Success is measured in profit for companies and it seems that the numbers of what games like Death Stranding cost compared to what they earned back are not available, so it likely isn't looking rosy.
I'm seeing claims of a cost in the $100M to $300M range, while seeing earnings in the $60M to $120M (as of 2025) range. That's $20M plus in the best case, which is still underwhelming.
They're saying on Reddit that DS2's sales fell well below expectations, which wouldn't surprise me. I liked the game a lot but it was a sequel to an already fairly niche game (that I liked even more).
Severing your relationship with a generation-defining artist because they had one whiff that only brought in $140,000,000+ in revenue seems shortsighted, even if you actually did lose money on that entry. About what I would expect from the MBA-driven economy, though. Your golden goose has shit out 10 golden eggs for you, then it lays one regular egg and you try to kill it. Except you fail and somebody else gets your goose instead.
Sony also presumably has a lot of visibility into the project, and it was already being framed as "genre-defining." I've loved various Kojima games but especially with the other exclusives line-up that Sony has, I can understand this is just too much risk for them.
It remains to be seen what egg will be laid in this case, how many golden ones may come after, and how many end up on Playstation anyway.
Really odd indeed, many of the Sony executives used to be relatively "It's OK to fail once, you've proven you can output stuff given resources", but seemingly there is a new Sony now where not obsessively cutting costs and doing bets isn't part of the culture anymore. Sad to see.
Kojima has a history of overspending by trying to make grandiose but weird games. And while they performed well, MGS4 sold less then The Last of Us or other big hits. I think that Kojima's games are games that people talk about more than they play. Probably MGS5 is the only one that actually "plays good".
Back then gaming wasn't as big as it is today. It does make sense to have TLOU outsold MGS4, they have 5 years gap, it is more than a decade later for both games now. I think we need to talk about percentage impacts rather than absolute numbers.
But how many of those games are console shifters? Hell back in the day I finally caved and bought a PS3 because of MGS4. Alright it may only shift say, 60% of the units, but if more of those units included a console purchase too then the onward value is huge.
Surprised Valve didn't try to step in. There was a comment from a former Valve employee that they had tried to recruit Kojima for an earlier project (probably Death Stranding) but got outbid.
Probably got outbid again. I love valve's business model/strategy/ethics, but its undeniable that a tradeoff for not being beholden to increasing shareholder value is that you often have less resources than your competitors for making big moves like this, since youre not raising capital from shareholders
I mean every time that Kojima made a game it turned out to be something that people talk about for years on. But the second it gets slightly more ambitious investors get their panties in the knot about it even though throughout history Kojima's products made a massive return. This split will also, in my opinion, lead to Kojima losing access to Decima engine, which sucks in a whole different way.
In the case of MGS4 and MGS5, because they're weirdly horny... Like, MGS5 was a good game, but you can't tell me that Kojima doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about bikini clad snipers.
I haven't played 4 (couldn't get past the cutscenes), but ah... Quiet is definitely front and centre in 5 at a certain point in the storyline, very embarrassingly so.
I was top 1000 for a while in the base-invasion mode of MGSV in the EU. That mode was basically a low-budget little tacked-on multiplayer that kept the core-gameplay and I spent hundreds of hours on it.
MGSV Metal Gear Online (the _other_ tacked-on multiplayer) was also great, but very unreliable netcode made it frustrating.
I wish someone would just take that game engine and make another good game on it. I _almost_ bought metal gear survive on the engine alone, that is how good it is.
I think the other trademark is Kojima, when he's not being weirdly horny, is just "supernatural and weird". Like the other stuff with the floating boy/psycho mantis, man on fire, parasite unit. When you've got the weirdly horny and supernatural mashed together, it's either a Kojima game or some variant of Biohazard (Resident Evil).
My overriding thought would be, ridiculously convoluted story, which maybe-sorta kinda works by some insane internal logic. More like the author thought X would be cool, with no thought of downstream ramifications to a coherent plot.
He didn't really want to make MGS4 and MGS5 and then still made successful games. Death Stranding franchise is one of the "games that he is well known for" and it is most def not 20+ years old. Dont see your point.
> He didn't really want to make MGS4 and MGS5 and then still made successful games
MGS4 and MGS5 were successful but I don't think they were really that good. I am not alone when it comes to that.
The vast majority of praise goes to MGS2 and 3 these days.
> Death Stranding franchise is one of the "games that he is well known for" and it is most def not 20+ years old.
It isn't nearly as well respected as MGS1-3.
> Dont see your point.
The point is that Kojima work these days isn't nearly as much of a draw as it once was. If fans of the original MGS games like myself aren't that interested in his newer stuff that says quite a lot.
How did it break ground exactly? I like MGS 1,2 and 3. I saw nothing particularly interesting about Death Stranding. I've seen friends playing it and still didn't really look that interesting.
I don't really understand when people find more of a good game to be boring. It's ok to take a break if you're tired of the formula or whatever but I dunno
To me it seems like saying "oh no, not another delicious steak today, I couldn't possibly"
I guess people just prefer more novelty than I do?
Take Wolfenstein 3D (1992) as an example. Genre defining game, no question.
Spear of Destiny (also 1992) is not only more of the same game, but an entire new game worth of new content. Great, but it's not part of any conversation.
Then came Doom (1993). Genre defining game all over again, no question.
On the other hand, you have Death Stranding (2019) and Death Stranding 2 (2025). Why did it take six years to make more of the same game?
People gotten used to the idea of "Same as existing but more/small additions" should actually be a DLC/addon, not worthy of incrementing the number and being a successor. For those, you need to completely change the entire thing to something else, then people are fine, and it's a hit/miss if the existing players like it.
Otherwise people feel like the parent, that it's just slightly different than before but incrementally improved, and should therefore be a DLC.
Would you say the same about more obviously artistic mediums? "Oh, their second album sounds exactly like their first which I liked!" isn't a compliment, usually.
No, Guerrilla Games. The engine also already runs on virtually every platform, including the Xbox and PC, but also phones.
Even though Guerilla Games is currently owned by Playstation Studios, they are still effectively an independent studio.
Microsoft, otoh, owns like half a dozen engines, uses none of them, and licenses none of them. The only way I'd see a engine swap happening is if Kojima somehow swung a deal to license the newest version of the Doom engine.
Nearly no chance idTech is being used for anything outside of the few franchises that leverage it, as modern idTech versions are mainly geared towards just those FPS games. id Software has been decimated too in the recent layoffs, and there's questions over the future of idTech
While PlayStation is on a streak of one bad decision after the other, I'd give them benefit of the doubt here.
Kojima likes to work unhinged on grand ideas with a tall budget which may stick or not stick at all. So may be Sony didn't like the direction of Physint and decided to dump it.
While Sony may be wrong in judging the game in its early stage, the replacement publisher, Microsoft, has solid track record of terrible taste at creating exclusives.
This situation seems very similar to Konami's frustrations with him a decade ago. Don't get me wrong, Konami too seemed hell-bent on driving into the ground, but Kojima does have a reputation for going over time and over budget. In a world of tightening belts, I wonder if Sony execs felt the same frustration as their counterparts did. We'll see how he fairs with Xbox, which seems even more eager than the other two to shutter things these days.
Which of his ideas didn't stick? Pretty sure the guy hasn't had a failure in recent memory.
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls596355504/
Success is measured in profit for companies and it seems that the numbers of what games like Death Stranding cost compared to what they earned back are not available, so it likely isn't looking rosy.
I'm seeing claims of a cost in the $100M to $300M range, while seeing earnings in the $60M to $120M (as of 2025) range. That's $20M plus in the best case, which is still underwhelming.
They're saying on Reddit that DS2's sales fell well below expectations, which wouldn't surprise me. I liked the game a lot but it was a sequel to an already fairly niche game (that I liked even more).
He was also facing cancellation at Sony, so it's plausible (if not likely) that he had to accept less favorable terms from Microsoft.
Hopefully we won't get another MGS:V situation where the last part of the game is just kind of missing.
Pretty remarkable. There are only three reasons I intend to buy a PS5 and Kojima games are one of them.
https://xcancel.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/20978775064016817...
This is very strange given the long-standing relationship between the two parties.
Death Stranding 2 underperformed.
It sold only 2-3 million copies which, depending on how much money they spent on development and marketing, may be a net loss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding_2%3A_On_the_Be...
Severing your relationship with a generation-defining artist because they had one whiff that only brought in $140,000,000+ in revenue seems shortsighted, even if you actually did lose money on that entry. About what I would expect from the MBA-driven economy, though. Your golden goose has shit out 10 golden eggs for you, then it lays one regular egg and you try to kill it. Except you fail and somebody else gets your goose instead.
Sony also presumably has a lot of visibility into the project, and it was already being framed as "genre-defining." I've loved various Kojima games but especially with the other exclusives line-up that Sony has, I can understand this is just too much risk for them.
It remains to be seen what egg will be laid in this case, how many golden ones may come after, and how many end up on Playstation anyway.
Really odd indeed, many of the Sony executives used to be relatively "It's OK to fail once, you've proven you can output stuff given resources", but seemingly there is a new Sony now where not obsessively cutting costs and doing bets isn't part of the culture anymore. Sad to see.
It's still the same kind of leadership that also closed Japan Studio as well as Studio Liverpool.
They don't understand what made the brand great in aggregate.
The W in MBA stands for Wisdom!
Kojima has a history of overspending by trying to make grandiose but weird games. And while they performed well, MGS4 sold less then The Last of Us or other big hits. I think that Kojima's games are games that people talk about more than they play. Probably MGS5 is the only one that actually "plays good".
Back then gaming wasn't as big as it is today. It does make sense to have TLOU outsold MGS4, they have 5 years gap, it is more than a decade later for both games now. I think we need to talk about percentage impacts rather than absolute numbers.
But how many of those games are console shifters? Hell back in the day I finally caved and bought a PS3 because of MGS4. Alright it may only shift say, 60% of the units, but if more of those units included a console purchase too then the onward value is huge.
No wonder they made me pay 80€ for it. Making up for the losses.
You can't have a relationship with a lawnmower.
Surprised Valve didn't try to step in. There was a comment from a former Valve employee that they had tried to recruit Kojima for an earlier project (probably Death Stranding) but got outbid.
Probably got outbid again. I love valve's business model/strategy/ethics, but its undeniable that a tradeoff for not being beholden to increasing shareholder value is that you often have less resources than your competitors for making big moves like this, since youre not raising capital from shareholders
I imagine the problem isn't Valve's cash on hand but just their willingness to spend it.
Give them hell, Kojima. I will buy PHYSINT on any platform that has the guts to release it.
I mean every time that Kojima made a game it turned out to be something that people talk about for years on. But the second it gets slightly more ambitious investors get their panties in the knot about it even though throughout history Kojima's products made a massive return. This split will also, in my opinion, lead to Kojima losing access to Decima engine, which sucks in a whole different way.
> something that people talk about for years on
In the case of MGS4 and MGS5, because they're weirdly horny... Like, MGS5 was a good game, but you can't tell me that Kojima doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about bikini clad snipers.
it's funny, as someone who's never played the games and only seen them mentioned by friends or online, the bikini clad snipers have not come up once
I haven't played 4 (couldn't get past the cutscenes), but ah... Quiet is definitely front and centre in 5 at a certain point in the storyline, very embarrassingly so.
People don’t talk about quite much, when they talk about MGSV they talk about how insanely good of a stealth action game it is.
I was top 1000 for a while in the base-invasion mode of MGSV in the EU. That mode was basically a low-budget little tacked-on multiplayer that kept the core-gameplay and I spent hundreds of hours on it.
MGSV Metal Gear Online (the _other_ tacked-on multiplayer) was also great, but very unreliable netcode made it frustrating.
I wish someone would just take that game engine and make another good game on it. I _almost_ bought metal gear survive on the engine alone, that is how good it is.
Which is probably fine because the target demographic for those games probably loves bikini clad snipers
I think the other trademark is Kojima, when he's not being weirdly horny, is just "supernatural and weird". Like the other stuff with the floating boy/psycho mantis, man on fire, parasite unit. When you've got the weirdly horny and supernatural mashed together, it's either a Kojima game or some variant of Biohazard (Resident Evil).
My overriding thought would be, ridiculously convoluted story, which maybe-sorta kinda works by some insane internal logic. More like the author thought X would be cool, with no thought of downstream ramifications to a coherent plot.
If you have never seen this summary of the Metal Gear series, buckle up: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aaLiLRVeaZA
I never bothered Death Stranding and everything after MGS-3 has been very meh IMO. He didn't really want to make MGS 4 & 5.
MGS 3 itself while an excellent game overstays it welcome after you defeat "The End" IMO.
The games that he is well known for at this point are really 20+ years old.
He didn't really want to make MGS4 and MGS5 and then still made successful games. Death Stranding franchise is one of the "games that he is well known for" and it is most def not 20+ years old. Dont see your point.
> He didn't really want to make MGS4 and MGS5 and then still made successful games
MGS4 and MGS5 were successful but I don't think they were really that good. I am not alone when it comes to that.
The vast majority of praise goes to MGS2 and 3 these days.
> Death Stranding franchise is one of the "games that he is well known for" and it is most def not 20+ years old.
It isn't nearly as well respected as MGS1-3.
> Dont see your point.
The point is that Kojima work these days isn't nearly as much of a draw as it once was. If fans of the original MGS games like myself aren't that interested in his newer stuff that says quite a lot.
I totally disagree. Death Stranding was groundbreaking in many ways.
How did it break ground exactly? I like MGS 1,2 and 3. I saw nothing particularly interesting about Death Stranding. I've seen friends playing it and still didn't really look that interesting.
Yes. And DS2 was somehow boring. It felt like a DLC for DS.
I don't really understand when people find more of a good game to be boring. It's ok to take a break if you're tired of the formula or whatever but I dunno
To me it seems like saying "oh no, not another delicious steak today, I couldn't possibly"
I guess people just prefer more novelty than I do?
Take Wolfenstein 3D (1992) as an example. Genre defining game, no question.
Spear of Destiny (also 1992) is not only more of the same game, but an entire new game worth of new content. Great, but it's not part of any conversation.
Then came Doom (1993). Genre defining game all over again, no question.
On the other hand, you have Death Stranding (2019) and Death Stranding 2 (2025). Why did it take six years to make more of the same game?
People gotten used to the idea of "Same as existing but more/small additions" should actually be a DLC/addon, not worthy of incrementing the number and being a successor. For those, you need to completely change the entire thing to something else, then people are fine, and it's a hit/miss if the existing players like it.
Otherwise people feel like the parent, that it's just slightly different than before but incrementally improved, and should therefore be a DLC.
Would you say the same about more obviously artistic mediums? "Oh, their second album sounds exactly like their first which I liked!" isn't a compliment, usually.
I mean, yes?
My favorite band started experimenting with different sounds and genres and while I still like their old stuff I don't care for their new stuff much
I would love if they made more that sounded like their old stuff.
Obviously it's their art and I don't begrudge them doing their own thing, but it was a bummer when I listened to it and felt it was no longer for me.
Talk about an unforced error on Sony's part
Maaaaaan! Just a few days ago, I saw... the right video game console... "Hitachi"
and then I saw... how video games used to be...
(1985 - 1991)
https://youtu.be/UovXq7smRwQ
https://youtu.be/WwltLEe-QxQ
https://youtu.be/x98ZH03tTno
https://youtu.be/ATaAyqTnJDE
But, yes you may be correct, i "didn't remember their 'Bugs'"...maybe too much of a "Lag"-something. Enjoy your nearing Weekend, regards... (-:
who actually owns the physint IP — kojima productions or sony? if sony paid for preproduction that handoff gets messy fast
Kojima owns the IP, they also own Death Stranding, unlike other partnerships where Sony owned the IP.
decima was sony's though — xbox port means new engine, that's the real delay
No, Guerrilla Games. The engine also already runs on virtually every platform, including the Xbox and PC, but also phones.
Even though Guerilla Games is currently owned by Playstation Studios, they are still effectively an independent studio.
Microsoft, otoh, owns like half a dozen engines, uses none of them, and licenses none of them. The only way I'd see a engine swap happening is if Kojima somehow swung a deal to license the newest version of the Doom engine.
Nearly no chance idTech is being used for anything outside of the few franchises that leverage it, as modern idTech versions are mainly geared towards just those FPS games. id Software has been decimated too in the recent layoffs, and there's questions over the future of idTech
What a shame too. Quake Wars on idTech performed incredibly well for such large maps and so many players. The vehicles were also fun to drive.