Games journalist Jason Schreier reported that director Hideo Kojima demanded a massive budget and a multiplatform release from PlayStation for his new title ‘Physint.’ According to Schreier, Xbox had no intention of matching that kind of budget and instead offered a far smaller amount than PlayStation did. On 5ch’s hardware/industry board, opinions split over the credibility of the report — some praised Schreier’s track record, while others questioned whether one journalist could really have inside information from both Microsoft and Sony (SIE) at the same time. Posts also pointed to the contractual relationship between Kojima Productions and Sony, and contrasted the reaction here with how fans responded when Kojima left Konami.
According to Jason Schreier, the budget figures he'd heard rumored were extremely high. However, Xbox had no intention of giving Kojima that kind of money, and reportedly offered a far smaller budget instead.
The guy who didn't know for 3 months is 'legit'?
This is exactly why people say Sony doesn't belong in gaming culture.
If you don't believe this guy, there's no point even discussing console wars anymore — just go quietly play your games.
You're just parroting Sony's propaganda straight down the line.
There's no way Microsoft's side of the offer would ever leak out.
Wait, you don't know him? People have been going at it over him on console-war boards forever.
Why would this guy have critical confidential info from both PlayStation AND Microsoft? lol
How many Hollywood stars are even in it?
The moment he retires, the studio's probably getting cut instantly.
They were already planning on 5 years of development as of last year, so that makes it weird that Microsoft would have put up money at all.
And of course he'd direct the movie himself too, stuffed with Hollywood actors.
Becoming a film director has always been Kojima's consistent goal anyway.
The Death Stranding movie is already set.
Kojima Productions is involved in production, and he was reportedly asked to direct, but that's obviously impossible while he's still making games.
Regardless of whether this is true or not,
both Sony and Microsoft keep going through cycles of layoffs and restructuring…
'Nishi-kun' (nickname for current SIE president Hideaki Nishino) doesn't have deep ties to Kojima to begin with and isn't even from a gaming background, so there's no way he'd fund Kojima after he failed to deliver results.
And Microsoft, despite its high asset value, is currently cash-strapped from insanely expensive AI investments, so there's no way they'd hand Kojima a huge budget either.
That much you could predict just from following console-war boards.
Oh, this guy. He's a legit journalist.
You're just parroting Sony's propaganda straight down the line.
There's no way Microsoft's side of the offer would ever leak out.
Isn't he already unanimously considered a liar overseas?
He's not, that's why he's still active on the front lines. His profile among Japanese gaming fans is probably only going to keep rising thanks to X's algorithm and auto-translation.
Sure, Sony makes the call, but Kojima's allowed to ask — the story is that it got turned down and the deal fell through.
Kojima's at the level of throwing a fit over exclusivity, so handing over the IP is completely out of the question.
Console-war posters flip on a dime.
Honestly, after kicking Kojima out, Konami's been digging up one dead IP after another from the grave and doing pretty well with it.
Who would've guessed we'd get a Salamander sequel in the Reiwa era?
But nobody's talking about that part.
Since it'd be Sony unilaterally canceling, there'd be a penalty fee owed to Kojima Productions.
Depends on the contract. Maybe they were trying to set up a deal where Sony gets a cut of whatever sells on other platforms.
They've only done facial scans of the actors so far, and Kojima himself has said he's borrowing money from a bank, so maybe Sony hasn't actually paid yet.
This is honestly too far-fetched.
So the flow is: 'SIE was already footing a ridiculous amount and Kojima wanted even more' (sourced) → 'well, there's no way Microsoft would pay that much' (the second half is speculation)?
Apparently porting work is brutal enough to work engineers at a small studio to death lol
Background and Key Points of This Story
Jason Schreier is a reporter for Bloomberg in the US with a track record of consistently breaking inside information about the games industry. Kojima Productions became independent from Konami in 2015 and, with funding from Sony, went on to release the ‘Death Stranding’ series; the new title ‘Physint’ was likewise announced in 2023 for PS5. This report is based on unconfirmed insider information that Schreier claims to have obtained, and the biggest point of contention in the thread is how accurately a single reporter could really grasp the details of negotiations on both the SIE and Microsoft sides. Posters also noted that the community’s reaction was strikingly different between Kojima’s Konami exit and this contract dispute with Sony — even though both are technically ‘contract trouble,’ which says something about the psychology of industry fans beyond just whether the rumor itself is true.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Console Wars)) thread “Schreier: ‘Kojima Demanded a Huge Budget and Multiplatform Release from PlayStation, Xbox Offered a Far Smaller Budget Than PlayStation’.”
