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September turned out to be an exceptionally busy month for Sony’s entertainment division – and certainly for its PR team. Last week, there was discussion of Sony’s decision to strengthen audience loyalty by keeping the entire $500 million it is set to receive as a tariff refund. Consumers were already frustrated by Sony’s move away from physical media, and now the problems are only piling up, as the company has managed to lose its most famous game developer.
When it comes to PlayStation, two things come to mind. The first is console-exclusive games like Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy VII, Bloodborne, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Last of Us. The second is Hideo Kojima.
Kojima’s projects have been released on PlayStation platforms ever since the console series first hit the market. Metal Gear Solid debuted on the original PlayStation in 1998, four years after the console’s release, and it’s incredible to see how Kojima, along with a relatively small team, managed to squeeze the most out of the console’s limited hardware, especially when compared to the device’s earliest releases. Over the next nearly 20 years, the franchise and the console evolved in tandem, with new installments released regularly to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of each successive generation.
Then, in 2015, Kojima parted ways with Konami, the studio to which he had dedicated his entire career. This split was scandalous, and the circumstances surrounding it were widely reported; the main point here is that it all came down to Konami’s decision to move away from story-driven games, which were Kojima’s specialty. In response, Kojima left, taking his own studio, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, with him.
Sony was more than happy to continue its collaboration with Kojima, working with him on the creation of *Death Stranding* and its sequel, and it seemed that perfect harmony reigned between the director and the publisher. Until this week.
After completing work on Death Stranding 2, Kojima and his team embarked on a project called PHYSINT, which reportedly features gameplay with stealth mechanics similar to the Metal Gear Solid series. Attentive followers of the director on Instagram may have noticed that he has been spending a lot of time in the U.S. over the past few months, and this week it became clear why: PHYSINT will not be developed in partnership with Sony.
This time, Kojima was not the one who initiated the split; according to the developer himself, Sony withdrew from the PHYSINT project in June. Since then, as Kojima notes, the team has been determined to save the project and spent three months searching for a new partner. They found one – it’s Xbox, which Kojima describes as a partner with whom they share a common vision for the future, a statement that clearly implies “unlike Sony.”
For its part, Xbox is expressing confidence in a long-term collaboration with Kojima. In an official joint statement regarding this partnership, Xbox head Asha Sharma notes that Kojima’s ambition to challenge conventional norms reflects the creative freedom that Xbox strives to support. This relationship will not be limited to this game alone, as Xbox and Kojima Productions will collaborate in film and television to create new stories for a wider audience, while also sharing a love for the peculiar practice of capitalizing titles.
Given the long-standing and friendly relationship between Sony and Kojima, as well as his own description of the decision to cancel PHYSINT as unexpected, it’s hard to find any other reason for the split besides purely financial gain. Apparently, Death Stranding 2 sold worse than its predecessor, and the Japanese company simply decided that funding another Kojima project wasn’t a very profitable move from a business standpoint.
However, turning its back on one of the industry’s most revered directors – whose name has effectively become synonymous with the company itself – and its console – only to see him move on to its main competitors – is hardly a wise decision, especially in a year when the corporation did everything it could to annoy its own customers. So we should feel sorry for Sony’s PR team, who have a few extremely difficult days ahead of them.
Read also: Sony – A Ghost of Former Greatness: Why a Once-Legendary Brand Is Becoming a “Museum Exhibit”