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The story
It’s become a hot topic on 5ch’s game-hardware board (Geha) that director Hideo Kojima’s new title ‘PHYSINT’ has lost access to the Decima Engine and Sony Pictures’ motion-capture facilities it had been using, forcing development to start over from scratch. Both were development infrastructure provided by Sony for the ‘Death Stranding’ series, so losing them effectively means a full project reset. On the thread, opinions clashed over pessimistic takes like “it won’t be finished for at least five years,” comparisons to past contract terminations with Konami and Google (Stadia), and speculation about a possible move to the Xbox camp.
What people said
It's finishing in five years, apparently.
Nobody wants a new one either, I bet.
Since when is it Sony who's trying to keep him around?
If it's not finishing for another 5-6 years, wouldn't it end up exclusive to the next-gen console by then?
I think Sony's layoff policy was probably done anticipating AI taking over work like this. If so, you'd think they'd have even more reason to keep the tools around, not less.
Asha: "Oh look, an Xbox Helix launch title just dropped into our lap!"
"Hideo Kojima reveals brand-new title PHYSINT is currently still in the 'concept stage'"
https://jp.ign.com/physint-hideo-kojima-action-espionage-project/80512/news/physint
Yeah, this is hopeless lol
So it's coming out in 2028?
I thought the joke was that Helix itself wouldn't even launch until around 2035.
Once you combine two vague things like Helix and PHYSINT, there's no way to even guess anymore.
They could probably sell a decent number of copies just by releasing that freely-usable 3D scan data of Minami Hamabe on its own.
They're already deep into making OD on Unreal Engine, so they'll get used to that too.
Wait, when did they even announce TES (The Elder Scrolls)?
Does Microsoft even handle progress management for them?
No way, Kojima hates ugly character designs way too much for that.
They did the actor mo-cap first while the actual game wasn't built at all, that's why he got chewed out.
Jumping straight to 3D scanning is just Kojima's style. The lead actor from OD passed away after that, by the way.
While saying they "respect Kojima's vision" and will "keep collaborating closely going forward," they're the ones taking his dev tools away? That's Sony for you — all they're thinking about is sabotaging Kojima and Microsoft.
Death Stranding is genuinely a well-made, good game, and it's popular and sold decently and got good reviews, but business-wise it seems to have barely broken even. Death Stranding 2 might even be running at a loss. Making a good game doesn't automatically mean everything's fine.
Sigh… Is everyone forgetting he also got cut loose by Google? Does that not count because it was just Stadia shutting down? But if this time it's the same story — cut loose because they gave up on PS6 — then it all lines up, doesn't it? And Microsoft picking him up afterward matches the pattern too!
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
As an independent studio, Kojima Productions has moved between major platform holders for funding and technical partnerships — from Konami, to Sony, to (as speculated) Microsoft. The Decima Engine is technology from Sony’s Guerrilla Games, and the motion-capture facilities were also provided by Sony Pictures, so losing access to both isn’t just an equipment swap — it’s closer to losing the very foundation of the development pipeline. The thread split between those who see this as “a fatal blow to development” and those who see it as “temporary turbulence from a platform switch,” with the latter camp pointing to a possible link with Xbox’s next-generation console concept, “Helix.” That said, details and timing for Helix itself remain unconfirmed, so this stays firmly in speculation territory even within the thread. It’s also worth noting that the original Death Stranding itself took several years to complete as a major project, so a flat “five years from now” figure isn’t confirmed information either.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread “Director Kojima’s new game PHYSINT forced to rebuild from scratch after losing access to the Desima engine and Sony Pictures’ motion-capture.”
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