Xbox Is Publishing PHYSINT After PlayStation Quietly Cancelled It in June

Hideo Kojima's stealth action game PHYSINT has a new publisher, and it isn't Sony. As reported by Variety and confirmed by an Xbox Wire blog post, Microsoft's Xbox division will now publish PHYSINT after PlayStation Studios scrapped the project internally back in June.

The two announcements landed within minutes of each other on 10 September.

PlayStation posted first, stating it had made the difficult decision to step back from collaborating with Kojima Productions on PHYSINT, while affirming its three-decade working relationship with Hideo Kojima remained intact.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma then responded almost immediately on X, before Xbox published a full blog post formalising the arrangement.

PlayStation Cancelled the Game Three Months Ago

Kojima himself clarified the timeline. Writing on X, as cited by Variety, Kojima said Kojima Productions received unexpected notice from PlayStation Studios in mid-June that the PHYSINT project was being cancelled.

He described PHYSINT as important both personally and to the studio, and said the team spent the three months since searching for a new partner across multiple fields before landing on Xbox.

That context matters. PlayStation's statement framed the split as a careful decision made with mutual respect, but Kojima's account makes clear the cancellation came from PlayStation and was not a joint choice.

Xbox and Kojima Productions Expand Their Partnership

Xbox was already set to publish Kojima Productions' horror title OD, a collaboration with filmmaker Jordan Peele.

PHYSINT now joins that arrangement, with Sharma stating in the Xbox blog post that Xbox is honoured Kojima chose to bring the game to them and that his approach to challenging creative conventions is exactly the kind of work Xbox wants to support.

Kojima, for his part, said the move expands the studio's relationship with Xbox beyond OD and that development of PHYSINT as a genre-defining action-espionage title is ongoing.

The deal goes further than games. Playday.one noted the Xbox blog post also confirmed the partnership will extend into film and television, with Xbox and Kojima Productions working together to bring new stories to broader audiences across those formats.

What This Means for the Game Itself

PHYSINT remains in active development. No release date or platform specifics were announced alongside the publisher change. The game was always planned as the follow-up to OD, which itself has no confirmed launch date.

The shift is a notable one for players who have followed Kojima's work through PlayStation exclusives including the Death Stranding franchise and the long-running Metal Gear series.

PHYSINT's future is now firmly in Xbox's hands, with Kojima Productions committed to seeing the project through.

The post Xbox Is Publishing PHYSINT After PlayStation Quietly Cancelled It in June appeared first on Stevivor.