Hideo Kojima Details What Went Down Between His Studio And Sony

Image Source: CGM

There’s still a ton of turmoil in the video game industry. XBOX and PlayStation continue to make bizarre moves that are having profound impacts on the industry, and most importantly, the people who work within it.

One of the latest spectacles was the departure of Hideo Kojima, the legendary developer behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, from his studio’s partnership with Sony. Then he ended up at XBOX. It was a move that took the industry by storm. He sat down with IGN to discuss what happened.

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Kojima started the interview talking about how he was called into a meeting with SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment), a Zoom meeting of all things. They told him flat out they were pulling funding from his newest game, that was supposed to be a PlayStation exclusive, Physint (this comes from other espionage-related words like sigint, meaning signals intelligence, and humint, meaning human intelligence. This clearly means physical intelligence.)

Image Source: Game Developer

Throughout the interview, he talked about his immediate concerns being how to protect his studio and the workers, and how they will go forward. Interestingly enough, immediately after the call with SIE, he sat down and further expanded on the concept for Physint. Then, he sought to reassure his directors and workers, of which he has over 200 in his studio, Kojima Productions. He assured them that he was going to find someone to fund the project.

The answer came from XBOX. Kojima talked about how they were already in contact with XBOX for their other game in development, OD. That helped open the door, and he set his team to prep a pitch with something to show XBOX, and they were able to strike a deal, with XBOX providing technological support. It’s an interesting move in a tumultuous time, especially from XBOX. They are facing a lot of backlash over their move to lay off nearly 3,200 people over this year and next, claiming financial concerns, but then they turn around and pick up one of the biggest names in video games? Kojima mentioned several times that he knows about the state of the industry, but his biggest concern is supporting the people he’s hired to do these projects, and with Physint finding a home, he can do that with XBOX.

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Source(s): IGN

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