Earlier this week, it broke that Sony had dropped Physint, a videogame being developed by Hideo Kojima. Which is weird, given that Kojima’s a bit of an auteur—his games are weird and ambitious in scope, but they’re often viewed fondly, and the man made Metal Gear Solid, for crying out loud.
Physint was meant to be a return to “tactical espionage action”, a prodigal return to what he’s known for—it seems wild to drop it, something Xbox decided to capitalise on, snapping up the project instantly. It’s since broken, in a Bloomberg report, that Sony might’ve simply ran out of patience.
And in fairness—as much fairness as you can give to a videogame giant in our current industry—some of these reasons do track, though, through the salt-pinched lens of anonymous sources: “[Physint] missed deadlines and was on track to be well over budget despite being years away from release,” the report states.
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There was also the point of “Kojima’s previous two games, Death Stranding and its sequel, which didn’t meet PlayStation’s revenue expectations.” Also potentially fair, though you’ve gotta wonder if “revenue expectations” are worth dropping someone like Kojima over—surely you’re in it for the prestige brand, or whatever people who wear suits and talk about growth in the next quarter call it.
The report also states, however, that “PlayStation was reluctant to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in another game that wouldn’t remain permanently exclusive to the company’s own hardware,” which is audacious enough to make my eyebrows damn well jump off my head.
At the very least, it’ll likely pour gasoline on a steadily-building ire from a gaming public that’s just been told Sony won’t be doing physical game disks anymore. But Sony’s juke away from PC ports does seem incredibly stubborn and bone-headed. Especially since it’s already cost the company Hideo Kojima’s next game—to its direct competitor, no less.