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Kojima Productions has issued an official statement responding to the speculation spreading online around its new project PHYSINT. The statement explicitly says that its relationship with PlayStation remains strong, that the studio is healthy and profitable, and that development is progressing smoothly in collaboration with Xbox.
The trigger was the September 2026 news that PHYSINT’s partner had moved from Sony Interactive Entertainment to Xbox. Ever since that announcement, claims that “Kojima Productions and Sony had a falling out” and “the studio is in financial trouble” had been circulating online with nothing solid behind them.
So Kojima Productions stepped out to put the fire out itself. And it didn’t stop at “the relationship is fine” — it went as far as addressing the studio’s finances and development progress to shoot the rumors down. A statement this specific is rare.
This article breaks down the three points the statement makes and reads into why it needed to come out now. Kill speculation before it starts circulating as fact — that has to have been the calculation here.
Let’s walk through the statement point by point.
What Does “Our Relationship With PlayStation Remains Strong” Actually Mean?
In the statement, Kojima Productions says plainly that its relationship with PlayStation remains strong. The argument being: a change of partner is not a breakup.
Kojima Productions and Sony go back to the studio’s founding in 2016. DEATH STRANDING shipped under Sony Interactive Entertainment’s publishing, and between it and its sequel, PlayStation has been the studio’s main battlefield for years. One project switching partners doesn’t erase all of that.
In practice, publishers changing on a per-title basis isn’t unusual in this industry. But with PHYSINT, Kojima has long talked about it as a stealth action game carrying on the Metal Gear lineage, which put the attention level in a different class entirely. That’s why the move got read as an “incident.”
Leading the statement with this point is the right call, because this is where the fire was hottest.
What It Means That the Studio Called Itself “Healthy and Profitable”
On the studio’s situation, the statement explicitly says it is healthy and profitable. A development studio commenting this directly on its own financial state is quite unusual.
Why include it? The answer is simple: a narrative was going around online that the studio must have been “rescued” by Xbox because it was in financial trouble. Speculation of that type reinforces itself unless you hand people something to refute it with. Short of pointing at the numbers, there’s no way to stop it.
Kojima Productions is an independent studio. Not sitting under a major publisher means funding rumors are a permanent companion. Which is exactly why the word “profitable” lands. It’s not an emotional rebuttal — it’s hitting back with facts.
Watching a studio you love get pummeled by baseless rumors is genuinely rough. I get that silencing it with numbers is the fastest route. …But honestly, a world where they never had to explain themselves like this would obviously be the better one.
Is PHYSINT’s Development Actually Going Well?
The statement addresses development too, explaining that it is progressing smoothly in collaboration with Xbox.
This matters as well. The realistic fear on the fan side was that switching partners would stall development through technical rework or contract cleanup. Stating outright that work is proceeding in collaboration at least establishes that things aren’t stalled as of right now.
That said, the statement doesn’t disclose a release window, platform specifics, or what phase development is in. “Going well” is not the same as “news is coming soon.” Worth staying level-headed about.
PHYSINT is the project Kojima has framed around fusing film and games. Given the scale involved, it’s reasonable to assume the next major announcement is still some way off.
Why Issue an Official Statement at This Particular Moment?
The statement closes by urging careful judgment around misinformation online. That’s the real substance of this announcement.
The speed at which speculation spread after the September 2026 partner-change announcement was considerable. Platform moves are among the topics that stir the strongest emotions among game fans. Leave it alone and unsourced claims calcify into “common knowledge.”
When companies put out statements like this, they usually hedge with vague phrasing. This one did the opposite, naming and denying three specific things: the relationship, the finances, the development. It went after every fire it could put out before they grew. As a PR call, that’s fairly aggressive.
One thing worth flagging. What the statement denies is speculation — it doesn’t explain the circumstances that led to the partner change itself. The biggest question, why the move happened, remains undisclosed. The calls for that answer aren’t going away.
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A Statement That Came to Stop Speculation With Facts
To recap: in response to speculation around PHYSINT, Kojima Productions issued an official statement making three explicit points — (1) the relationship with PlayStation remains strong, (2) the studio is healthy and profitable, and (3) development is progressing smoothly in collaboration with Xbox. It also urges careful judgment regarding misinformation online.
The backdrop is the unsourced guesswork that spread after the September 2026 partner-change announcement. The falling-out theory, the financial-trouble theory, the stalled-development theory — all three got answered in concrete language.
With studio moves and partner changes in this industry, you usually can’t tell the reasons from the outside. That’s precisely why speculation breeds. What Kojima Productions chose here was not to wait out the storm in silence but to draw a line in its own words. As someone waiting on the game, that’s enough for me.
This statement names and kills the three things rumors latch onto most easily: the relationship, the finances, the development. The financial comment in particular — calling itself profitable — is a bold move for an independent studio, and it signals how seriously they wanted this fire out. But the reason for the move itself goes unexplained, leaving the thing fans most want to know blank. What’s needed next isn’t another statement. It’s footage of the game.
Let’s stop talking in rumors. The job of those of us waiting is to wait.
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Nokko Oda
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