Hideo Koijima and his studio Kojima Productions have offered a more in-depth version of their side of the story after action espionage game Physint switched publishers from PlayStation to Xbox earlier this month. Kojima claimed PlayStation had tried to cancel the game, with a subsequent report from Bloomberg alleging that an exceeded budget, missed deadlines, and Death Stranding series sales not being as strong as Sony hoped were among the factors which led the console makers to get cold feet.
Now, Kojima Productions have urged people to take those claims "with a dose of scepticism", as Kojima has gone through his version of the events around the jump between publishers.
According to Kojima in an interview with IGN, he said that Sony told him they wanted to have a Zoom call in June. "They said they can no longer fund development for Physint," the developer claimed. "I was shocked and I said, 'What did you say?' I couldn’t quite process what they had said. I wasn’t sure because I was in shock.
"Anyway, I know there's a lot of news in the game industry that many studios are closing down, many titles are canceled, and I understand the situation in the industry as a whole. But I thought Physint was okay. That Physint was safe. So I was surprised. But not just surprised. We didn’t understand the reason."
Initially, only Kojima, Kojima Productions president Shinji Hirano and head of talent development Akiyoshi Saito were kept in the know about Sony's cancellation plans, with Kojima reasoning "we didn’t tell the staff, because we needed to figure out a direction before telling anyone". Though, he did say that, having gotten started on trying to find a new publisher for Physint, a few days after the Sony call he told the leaders of the team working on the game what the situation was. Some moving of staff over from Physint to the team working on Xbox-published horror game OD followed, with Kojima fearing this might lead devs to leave, but asserting that "no one did". All in all, Kojima insisted that "the work didn’t stop" on Physint due to the situation, but admitted that "it's not like we're ready to go, or like it's like a big team already. It's more like a very small team that remained for the crucial parts, and all the others moved to OD."
As for PlayStation pulling out, Kojima said they didn't reach out to him after that initial Zoom call to clarify why they made the call to cancel Physint, but asserted that he's "not fighting" or "in a dispute" with Sony.
As part of the interview, Kojima Productions issued a statement responding to the claims made in the Bloomberg report. "Normally, we would not comment on unsubstantiated speculation on the internet," the studio wrote. "But these aspersions around our relationship with PlayStation, the commercial performance of the Death Stranding franchise, and the broader production planning and investment for Physint, have reached beyond the studio and have touched our fans, our creative partners, and colleagues we have worked alongside with for three decades. None of the claims written came from any official or on-the-record source and as such we encourage you to take them with a dose of scepticism.
"Make no mistake, this was a serious situation for the studio with a range of potentially significant implications. While we recognise that the article may have caused alarm, we want to reassure you all, for the record: that the studio is in a healthy, profitable state, development for Physint continues to move forward with Xbox, and our relationship with PlayStation remains strong."
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