Sony stepped away from Physint (Kojima Game), and now the game will be published by Xbox

[G2ThaUNiT]

SanAndreasX said:

PotentHerbs said:

In many ways this decision makes sense.

This feels like an expensive mid generation PS6 release where Sony won't have ownership of the IP. And the game will likely be coming out on their platform anyways. But just not a good look with the string of bad news over the last couple of months.

It was also years away. I read somewhere that Kojima wanted 6 more years on it.

And that brings up another issue - Kojima himself. Let’s face it, he’s a prima donna. He wants full creative freedom and a blank checkbook, but the end products don’t really justify all that in terms of quality and sales. Even back in 2015, I wondered how much of his departure from Konami was a result of them simply getting tired of his demands. When Capcom can make a Resident Evil game on a fraction of the budget of a Kojima game that sells better, that makes him look like an even riskier bet. He’s good at getting online hype and Geoff Keighley fawns over him, but that doesn’t really pay the bills.

   And it took three months to find another publisher, which means nobody else was champing at the bit for a supposed gaming legend. It’s kind of like when Nintendo picked up Bayonetta after Platinum couldn’t find another publisher. I’m guessing that MS took him on because they knew the online rage machine would work against PlayStation, but I doubt that Physint is going to light the sales charts on fire when it does release, so they’re likely to lose money. I mean, they can afford to lose money, it’s Microsoft, but their shareholders aren’t going to be happy. 

I don't think you realize how insanely fast it is to sign a contract of this magnitude with a company of this size. It could easily take upwards of a year for certain kinds of contracts to finally happen. But also, 6-8 years is pretty standard these days for AAA game development. Didn't help with the strike that happened in 2024.

It seems more like Asha hopped on the opportunity the second it became available. You think contracts with hundreds of millions and legal areas covered happen over a weekend?

This would be no doubt a platform-centric move. Not so much focusing on ROI, but the continued push towards rebuilding the Xbox brand. You don't do that with just a couple of titles. It takes years to do and major moves. Kojima is still a respected name in the industry.

But it also goes beyond that. Every studio that had either a film or TV show in the pipeline wasn't really affected by the recent layoffs. Kojima is massive on film production, and part of this partnership is films and tv shows. We've seen many times how massively boosted game sales are with corresponding movie and show releases, so that would be another piece to this puzzle.