Sony’s decision to walk away from its deal with the legendary Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima for upcoming PlayStation game Physint was reportedly the result of budget concerns and missed deadlines.
That’s according to a fresh Bloomberg report that details some of Sony’s thinking behind the decision to walk away from Physint, which Microsoft subsequently snapped up for Xbox.
As suggested yesterday by analysts speaking to IGN in the aftermath of the news breaking, Sony appears to be reigning in its spending after a woeful run of first-party game flops and cancellations. After wasting hundreds of millions of dollars developing the short-lived Concord, Naughty Dog’s now-canned The Last of Us Online, and the still-limping Marathon, Sony is apparently enforcing stricter production milestones.
Bloomberg’s report includes the direct assertion that Physint “missed deadlines and was on track to be well over budget despite being years away from release,” according to the publication’s sources.
The revenue performance of Death Stranding and its sequel, another factor previously mentioned by analysts, also played a part in Sony’s decision, it’s claimed. While the first title turned a profit for Kojima Productions, Death Stranding 2 failed to build on this success.
Analysis from Alinea Analytics previously suggested that Death Stranding 2 sales have now slowed to a trickle, that several notable discounts on the game have failed to move the needle, and that revenue for the game remains far lower than that of its predecessor.
Several other factors also came into play for Sony, Bloomberg’s report continues. One is Sony’s previously-reported decision to stop releasing many of its single-player games on PC — something that would have cut into Physint’s potential audience further. And another reason is apparently that, while Kojima and PlayStation have enjoyed a long partnership together since the days of PS1, many of the Sony chiefs who previously worked with the Metal Gear creator have since moved on.
With Kojima cut adrift, the report closes with details on why Xbox immediately swooped in, other than to secure the obvious PR win of nabbing Kojima from PlayStation. It’s claimed that Xbox’s new leaders under boss Asha Sharma saw Physint as a strong investment, with plans to launch the game on PC (no surprise there) and as an alignment with Sharma’s stated goal of expanding Xbox’s reach beyond games to film and TV. As part of Sony and Kojima’s original announcement, some form of movie studio involvement was teased — though exactly what’s being planned, we’re still waiting to hear.
“This doesn’t look great for PlayStation among core gamers,” Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliot said yesterday. “Especially right now. From a strictly financial perspective, though, I can understand Sony’s position. In a vacuum, anyway.
Next up from Kojima will be OD, the PT-like project already confirmed as coming to Xbox. As of yet, there’s no word on when that will arrive, let alone Physint — though the latter has been described as a next-gen game.
Image credit: Kojima Productions.
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