Hideo Kojima Says Sony Ended Their 30-Year Partnership Over a Zoom Call With No Explanation Given

Legendary video game designer Hideo Kojima has publicly described the abrupt end of his decades-long publishing relationship with Sony, saying the company informed him it was walking away from his upcoming stealth-action game “Physint” during a June video call and never offered a reason for the decision.

Speaking to The Washington Post through an interpreter, Kojima said he was “shocked and surprised” by Sony’s decision, which was made public earlier this month. A Sony Interactive Entertainment representative delivered the news during a June video call attended by Kojima, his translator Aki Saito, and Kojima Productions president Shinji Hirano, according to reporting on the meeting. Kojima had been partnered with Sony since leaving Konami and founding his own independent studio more than a decade earlier, making the sudden end of that relationship especially unexpected.

In a separate interview with IGN, Kojima elaborated further on what happened during the call, describing it as Sony’s “final notice” on the project. Asked whether Sony had since offered any explanation for pulling out of “Physint,” Kojima was direct. “No, not at all. They haven’t contacted me ever since,” he said. Kojima acknowledged he did not press Sony extensively for reasons during the call itself, saying his attention shifted immediately to the practical implications for his studio rather than the rationale behind the decision. “I didn’t have any anger or sadness,” Kojima said, describing his reaction to the news. “I was just thinking, ‘What should I do?’ It’s a big problem for us and I couldn’t tell staff at the time…. We’re an independent studio. That means if they can’t fund us, our studio could collapse.”

Kojima Productions had already hired staff specifically to work on “Physint,” a stealth-action game featuring actor Bill Skarsgård that has been positioned as a spiritual successor to Kojima’s earlier “Metal Gear” series. With Sony’s backing suddenly gone, Kojima said his studio spent roughly three months searching for a new publishing partner before ultimately landing at Microsoft’s Xbox division, which was already working with Kojima Productions on a separate horror title, “OD,” developed in collaboration with filmmaker Jordan Peele. Kojima said the decision to go with Xbox came after approaching several potential partners and receiving positive initial responses from multiple companies, with Microsoft’s gaming division ultimately winning out due to the comprehensiveness of its offer.

Despite the abrupt and unexplained end of a professional relationship spanning roughly three decades, one that included the launch of both “Death Stranding” and its sequel, “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach,” as PlayStation exclusive titles, Kojima said he holds no grudge against Sony. He described the situation as amicable rather than adversarial, stressing that the two sides are “not in a dispute,” even as he acknowledged he would have preferred more advance warning before the relationship came to an end.

The split drew additional scrutiny after Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, that Sony’s decision was driven by concerns that “Physint” was falling behind schedule and on pace to significantly exceed its budget, along with concerns that “Death Stranding 2” had missed PlayStation’s internal revenue expectations. Kojima Productions pushed back directly on that account in a written statement issued Sunday, urging readers to treat the Bloomberg report “with a dose of scepticism.” The statement sought to reassure fans and industry observers about the studio’s underlying financial position. “Make no mistake, this was a serious situation for the studio with a range of potentially significant implications,” the studio said. “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.”

Kojima’s IGN interview was reportedly conducted before Bloomberg’s report on the budget and scheduling concerns was published, meaning his account of the Zoom call itself was not offered as a direct response to those specific allegations. Even so, Kojima has continued to maintain publicly that he does not consider the split with Sony to be adversarial, despite the lack of explanation he says he received.

Whether “Physint” will ultimately be exclusive to Xbox platforms, similar to Kojima Productions’ earlier horror title “OD,” or will also become available on PlayStation systems remains an open question. According to Kojima, that determination now rests with Microsoft rather than with his own studio, given Xbox’s position as the project’s new publishing partner.

The unusual circumstances surrounding the split, an unexplained decision delivered over video call, followed by conflicting public accounts of the underlying reasons, have made the Kojima-Sony breakup one of the more closely watched stories in the video game industry this fall. For Kojima, a designer whose name has become closely associated with PlayStation exclusives dating back to the original “Metal Gear Solid” series, the sudden pivot to a new publishing partner marks a significant shift in a relationship that had, until this year, defined much of his post-Konami career as an independent studio head.