Hideo Kojima’s PHYSINT has a new publishing partner.

Xbox and Kojima Productions announced that their existing relationship is expanding beyond OD, with Xbox now set to publish Kojima’s upcoming action-espionage game.

The development marks a major change for a project that was originally announced in partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment.

PHYSINT was revealed in January 2024 during a PlayStation State of Play presentation. At the time, Kojima Productions said it was developing the new intellectual property with the full support of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Kojima described the project as a new-generation action-espionage game designed to draw on his decades of experience in the genre while also pushing the boundaries between games and film.

That original arrangement has now ended.

PlayStation Studios announced that it had decided to step away from its collaboration with Kojima Productions on PHYSINT. The company said it continues to admire Kojima’s vision and emphasized that its broader relationship with the creator and his independent studio remains strong.

The announcement did not publicly provide a detailed reason for the decision.

Hideo Kojima later offered additional context about what happened behind the scenes.

According to Kojima, Kojima Productions unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios in mid-June that the PHYSINT project under their collaboration would be canceled.

Kojima said PHYSINT remained important both to him personally and to Kojima Productions, leading the studio to spend the following three months searching for a new partner that would allow development to continue.

That search ultimately led back to Xbox.

Kojima said the studio found a partner in Xbox with which it shares a common vision for the future and reassured players that development of PHYSINT remains underway.

The arrangement significantly expands an existing relationship between the two companies.

Xbox and Kojima Productions are already working together on OD, the experimental horror project first announced under Xbox Game Studios Publishing. Their collaboration can be traced back to the partnership revealed in 2022, when Microsoft and Kojima announced plans to develop a new game using Xbox’s cloud technology.

PHYSINT now becomes another major Kojima Productions project tied to Xbox.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the company is honored that Kojima chose Xbox as the partner for PHYSINT, describing his willingness to challenge conventions as the type of creativity Xbox wants to support.

Kojima, meanwhile, said the expanded relationship takes the partnership beyond OD and reiterated his ambition to redefine the action-espionage genre through PHYSINT.

The implications also extend beyond video games.

Xbox says its expanded partnership with Kojima Productions will include collaboration across film and television, with the companies intending to develop stories for broader audiences.

That direction fits the ambitions Kojima has described for PHYSINT since its original announcement.

In 2024, Kojima Productions said the project would use advanced technology and a major cast while attempting to blur the line between games and movies. The studio presented it not simply as another stealth-action title, but as a project designed around the intersection of interactive entertainment and cinematic production.

More information has gradually emerged since then.

During Kojima Productions’ 10th anniversary celebrations, the studio revealed visual material for PHYSINT and announced three members of its cast: Charlee Fraser, Ma Dong-Seok and Minami Hamabe.

However, major questions remain unanswered.

Kojima Productions has not announced a release date, and the new Xbox announcement does not specify platforms beyond confirming Xbox’s role as publisher.

That distinction is important.

The announcement confirms a change in the publishing relationship, but it does not by itself establish every platform on which PHYSINT will eventually be released. Until Xbox or Kojima Productions provides a definitive platform list, assumptions about exclusivity should be treated cautiously.

What is confirmed is that the project itself survived the end of its PlayStation collaboration.

For several months, Kojima Productions was apparently searching for a way to continue a game its founder considers important to the future of the studio. Xbox has now become that partner.

The result places both of Kojima Productions’ major upcoming original projects, OD and PHYSINT, within an increasingly broad relationship with Microsoft’s gaming business.

For PHYSINT in particular, the transition is striking.

A game introduced publicly alongside PlayStation as the next major evolution of Kojima’s action-espionage work will now move forward under Xbox publishing.

Development remains underway, and Xbox and Kojima Productions say more information will be shared as the project progresses.

ARTICLE CREDIT:

News story written by Mike Lima.

Source/Further reading:

Primary source/reference link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/09/xbox-and-kojima-productions-expand-partnership-to-publish-physint/