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The story
A title that had been unveiled with great fanfare during a PlayStation showcase has reportedly had its development support cut by Sony. In the IGN US interview quoted above, the person in charge explains that Sony reached out in June this year asking for an online meeting, but they couldn’t respond at the time because they were in New York for a Prada event and then stayed on in Los Angeles afterward. On 5ch, this timeline has drawn a lot of comments arguing that “the lack of communication is the developer’s fault, not Sony’s” — and, pointing back to the earlier case where Konami similarly cut off support, commenters noted that this time criticism is flowing toward the developer instead, the opposite of what happened back then.
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“In June, we got word from SIE that they wanted to set up a Zoom meeting to talk.”
“I was incredibly busy at the time — I’d just gone to New York for a Prada event, and right after that I was in Los Angeles too.”
Source: jp.ign.com / Original article here
What people said
Still years away from finishing, and now it's back to begging for another ¥10 billion from here.
It's not that Sony failed to communicate — it's on the developer for not staying in close contact with Sony and failing to lay out a solid release roadmap or sell them on the game's appeal.
Re: #11
This is correct.
People keep saying this, but is Sony — the company that made and shipped Concord — really in a position to talk? (Concord: Sony's own big-budget game that flopped and was pulled)
In the end, it comes down to this.
Right now they're still casting actors (foreign talent) and hammering out the concept — nothing's actually been built yet.
Fans: "What happens to the parts already made with the Decima Engine? What are you going to do once you can't use Decima anymore?"
Director: "Still mulling over which engine to use. First, OD."
That's the state of things.
Signed with Sony around 2022.
Now, in the second half of 2026, they're still deciding on the engine and the main character.
If all goes well, release is planned for 2030.
This is basically the same thing that got them cut by Konami — if it had sold like crazy there might've been hope, but they didn't hit their target sales numbers either.
Even when Sony asked them to show results, all they could show was "we've signed a bunch of Hollywood stars."
They've been recklessly burning through someone else's money while actual game development goes nowhere.
Of course they got cut.
Is that one actually turning a profit?
That's probably what it comes down to.
Honestly, that second one was the real litmus test for Sony.
This time there are a lot more people defending Sony instead, which makes sense.
Getting dropped twice in a row — at that point the problem is clearly on Kojima Productions' end.
I want Metal Gear Solid to keep going, so I didn't want them to break with Konami.
Death Stranding, though, I'm fine without more of, so splitting from Sony isn't a big deal.
That's really all there is to it.
Since this didn't turn into Sony-bashing the way they expected, and people started saying "isn't Kojima the weird one here?" instead — that's probably why Kojima Productions put out that statement.
Meanwhile the Kojima fan accounts are still retweeting Sony-bashing posts like crazy.
At this rate the industry's going to collapse eventually.
Depends on the development and marketing budget.
And honestly, GTA is just an outlier.
There's zero gratitude for all the support they've gotten so far.
Even with a new partner, it probably won't last long either.
Even fans overseas started saying they should've just paid Capcom a fortune to make it instead.
Onimusha isn't generating much buzz, but it still hit a million units on day one.
There are several games from around the same time with way smaller budgets that turned out better.
Onimusha
DawnWalker
Even if you gave those two combined budgets times two, Wolverine probably still wouldn't have gotten finished.
"It's a mess" — that's probably just the opinion of someone who hasn't even played it, right?
but the moment they get cut, suddenly it's "the other side barely communicated and unilaterally pulled the plug on us."
Whether it's Konami or Sony, it's the same move every time.
At its core, this is basically the same kind of situation as that Like a Dragon project.
They'd probably run into each other just going out for lunch.
Oh, it's here?! I used to go there for health checkups back in the day.
Well, that probably depends on the contract.
He's the Metal Gear guy.
The Smash Bros. guy is Sakurai, and he's still working with Nintendo — he just put out Kirby Air Riders recently.
Can they even use Guerrilla Games' Decima Engine?
If they're switching engines, this doesn't look like it'll even be done by 2030 for PHYSINT.
Background and Key Points
By way of background, this project appears to be a title co-developed by a major studio and Sony, unveiled several years ago during a PlayStation showcase. In recent years, AAA titles have seen ballooning development and marketing budgets to the point where a game must sell in the millions of units just to break even, and funders have grown increasingly cautious about pouring more money into projects showing little progress. The studio in question previously had a contract cut by a different funder as well; back then, criticism was aimed mainly at the funder, but this time, following the split with Sony, the prevailing sentiment instead holds the developer accountable — a notable contrast. That said, there has been no official word on the specific contract terms or whether either side bears additional costs, so it’s worth noting that the thread’s comments remain speculation.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Live News G) thread “[Sad News] Sony Unilaterally Cancels and Ignores a Title It Once Proudly Unveiled on PlayStation Direct.”
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