Bloomberg: Sony Interactive Entertainment stepped away from Physint over missed deadlines, budget concerns

Sony Interactive Entertainment stepped away from publishing Kojima Productions‘ stealth action game Physint over budget concerns, potential profitability, and exclusivity, according to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier citing people familiar with the project.

Kojima Productions’ previous two games published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, did not meet revenue expectations, the people said.

Physint has reportedly missed deadlines and was on track to be “well over budget,” despite being years away from release.

Sony Interactive Entertainment was also said to be reluctant to invest “hundreds of million of dollars” in another game that would not remain exclusive to its hardware.

Despite producing Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, both games were timed exclusives that later released on other platforms. Like Physint, the Death Stranding intellectual property is owned by Kojima Productions.

When Kojima Productions founder Hideo Kojima left Konami and started the independent Kojima Productions, he quickly announced a long-term relationship with Sony Interactive Entertainment that led to the Death Stranding games.

But many of the Sony Interactive Entertainment executives who had close relationships with Kojima have left the company in recent years, people familiar with the business said.

Xbox, which picked up publishing of Physint after Sony Interactive Entertainment stepped away, saw the game as a good investment as it plans to publish the game on both Xbox and PC, according to people familiar with the company’s strategy.

“Betting on Kojima-san is an easy call,” an Xbox spokesperson said. “We believe in his team’s ability to build AAA games with groundbreaking, new [intellectual property] and we believe in OD, Physint, and our growing partnership.”