Hideo Kojima Can’t Say If Physint Will Be Released on PlayStation; Unsure If It’ll Use Decima Engine
With news that Kojima Productions’ Physint is now being developed in parternship wth Xbox instead of Sony, possibly the big question on everyone’s mind is: will Physint still appear on PlayStation platforms?
Even the game’s creator, Hideo Kojima, doesn’t have the answer for that currently, though he did say that he doesn’t have any bad feelings toward the company.
Kojima also talked about Physint’s game engine as well in a new interview.
Physint’s PlayStation Release Still Up in the Air
In an interview with IGN, which is the first time Kojima has talked about Physint after the shift from Sony to Microsoft, the game director was asked point-blank whether Physint will still come out on PlayStation, given some first-party Xbox games do sometimes release as multiplatform.
Kojima admitted he doesn’t know himself, stating, “I don’t know the answer to that – that would be a question for Xbox. But I don’t know for sure. In previous updates from Xbox, I thought that they have this kind of stance where they want to deliver to as many gamers as possible, no matter what the platform is. I think all of that will be announced at a later time. I’m not sure yet, and I can’t really say.”
This is understandable, given Xbox will be the one deciding whether they want Physint on competing platforms or not.
In the same interview, Kojima was asked whether they are changing game engines as well, given Physint was under development using the Decima engine, which is first-party technology by Sony via Guerrilla Games.
For now, Kojima can’t answer that, as the developers are still experimenting.
Kojima commented, “Well, I haven’t really decided yet. I’m still experimenting. After we decided to team up with Xbox, they said they will give us a lot of technological support. When I went to visit them during the Don Mattrick days, they had so many labs and everything, and they were experimenting on so many things, like state of the art, new, really new, cutting-edge technology. I was really surprised. I was thinking, “There are so many Doc Browns from Back to the Future here!” So I want to use all this new technology. Anything that I can use, I want to use, and I’m looking forward to teaming up with Xbox, but I really haven’t decided about the engine.”
Kojima Said Sony Didn’t Give a Reason Why They Wanted to Cancel Physint
Hideo Kojima also said that Sony didn’t give a reason why Sony wanted to cancel Physint, which contradicted reports from a week ago that mentioned Sony wanted to cancel the project due to missed deadlines and Death Stranding underperforming commercially.
When asked whether Sony clarified why they were canceling the game or gave a reason as to why, Kojima said Sony terminated the partnership via a Zoom call.
“So in June, SIE said they wanted to have a Zoom call. I was so busy at that time — I had just gone to New York for a Prada event and then to LA right after. But anyway, I came back and we had this Zoom call,” Kojima noted.
Kojima continued, “They said they can no longer fund development for Physint. 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.”
When asked whether Sony later clarified why they canceled the project, Kojima said no reason was given at all.
“No, not at all. They haven’t contacted me ever since. But I’m not fighting with Sony. We’re not in a dispute. But what I want to say is that we’ve been together for 30 years and we have this relationship. So if this was the conclusion, I would’ve wanted to hear it a little earlier. But that meeting in June, they just gave us the final notice.
As I said, my mind went blank, so I didn’t really ask a lot of questions. It was more like, what should I do with my company? So that was what was on my mind at the time. I’ve always been a big Sony fan. I’ve been using a Walkman. All my cameras are Sony. So I have no bad feelings towards them,” Kojima shared.
A better explanation of what transpired there is available here, as the person who wrote the report gave context as well.
In related news, Bill Skarsgard has been officially cast as Physint’s main character alongside other actors.
