Four days after Xbox took PHYSINT off PlayStation’s hands, the CEO of Xbox was standing in Kojima Productions’ office getting her picture taken with the man himself.
That’s the whole story, and it’s a better one than it sounds.
What changed on Sept. 10
It became known that day that PlayStation wouldn't be funding Kojima Productions' next big game after all. Xbox is handling publishing instead.
PHYSINT, the action-espionage game Hideo Kojima has been building toward and the one widely treated as the spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid, now lands under the Xbox umbrella.
That’s a big shift for a project that spent its early life attached to Sony. And it’s not the only Kojima game with Xbox’s name on it.
The photos, and the one that matters
Asha Sharma visited the Kojima Productions offices and posed with the creator. She retweeted Kojima’s post, writing: “Working day with @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN and team on OD, PHYSINT and the future.”
Read that last clause again. OD, PHYSINT “and the future.” Nobody drops a phrase like that into a photo caption by accident.
Kojima’s own post was shorter. “With @asha_shar,” he wrote. Later: “Asha also signed our signboard. Thank you so much 🙏🙇🏻🫶 @asha_shar”
Something on a screen
One image in the set is doing more work than the rest. Kojima appears to have shown Sharma something from what he’s preparing, because both of them are pictured watching something specific, and they look thrilled about it.
What’s on that screen isn’t stated. PHYSINT, OD, the future, take your pick.
Two games, one publisher
Worth remembering: besides PHYSINT, Kojima is also preparing OD, again in collaboration with Xbox. So the studio’s two announced projects now share a publisher, and that publisher’s chief executive just flew in to sign the signboard on the wall.
The photos show a working day. The caption says “the future.” Kojima says thank you with three emoji and a bow.