The studio is in a healthy, profitable state

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Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke

6 minutes ago

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Kojima Productions have been in plenty of headlines of late, and have now released a statement that pushes back on recent reports relating to the studio, the commercial performance of the Death Stranding franchise and more, as the team insist the studio is in a “healthy, profitable state.”

We’ve been hearing a lot about Kojima Productions over the past week or so following the bombshell announcement that Sony PlayStation had dropped their newest project, PHYSINT, which subsequently saw Xbox pick up the project and make some big noise about online, including a surprise appearance during their recent Tokyo Game Show broadcast.

During this turmoil, new reporting from Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier emerged that shed some light on just what went down between PlayStation and Kojima’s studio, including poor sales of the Death Stranding franchise, a lack of exclusivity to PlayStation, budget concerns and missed deadlines.

Today, Kojima Productions appear to be pushing back on these reports, releasing a statement on social media. The statement from Kojima Productions is detailed below.

You may have seen a recent article that mentions KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, speculating on the reasons for the change in publishing partners for PHYSINT.

Normally, we would not comment on unsubstantiated speculation on the internet, but these aspersions around our relationship with PlayStation, the commercial performance of the DEATH STRANDING franchise, and the broader production planning and investment for PHYSINT, have reached beyond the studio and have touched our fans, our creative partners, and colleagues we have worked alongside with for three decades.

None of the claims written came from any official or on-the-record source and as such we encourage you to take them with a dose of scepticism.

Make no mistake, this was a serious situation for the studio with a range of potentially significant implications. While we recognise that the article may have caused alarm, we want to reassure you all, for the record: that the studio is in a healthy, profitable state, development for PHYSINT continues to move forward with XBOX, and our relationship with PlayStation remains strong.

Thank you for your continued support,
KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS

Aligning with the released statement, which you can read below, is a new interview with Hideo Kojima via IGN, who described what happened when PlayStation requested a call and advised they were pulling out of PHYSINT.

Per Hideo Kojima – “They said they can no longer fund development for Physint. I was shocked and I said, “What did you say?” I couldn’t quite process what they had said. I wasn’t sure because I was in shock.” He continued, detailing Xbox response to a pitch he put together to keep the project alive. “I approached Xbox and they were great. They could support us technically. And also we’ve been working on OD with them, so we already had a connection. I made a proper pitch of Physint to them. And then their first reaction was like, “This pitch was fantastic. Never seen a pitch like this!” And that’s how it started with Xbox.“

In terms of why Sony cancelled, the game, here’s what Kojima had to say “They haven’t contacted me ever since. But I’m not fighting with Sony. We’re not in a dispute. But what I want to say is that we’ve been together for 30 years and we have this relationship. So if this was the conclusion, I would’ve wanted to hear it a little earlier. But that meeting in June, they just gave us the final notice.“

For a lot more detail, go head over to IGN for all the details.

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