What led to PlayStation ending its collaboration with Kojima Productions on Physint?
PlayStation decided to step away from collaborating with Kojima Productions on their upcoming game Physint, citing a "careful consideration" in their announcement but without detailed reasons. Hideo Kojima later revealed that PlayStation Studios had unexpectedly informed them of a cancellation of the project. This decision builds on a broader pattern of the company canceling various first-party projects, reflecting a more cautious or shifting strategy toward game production partnerships.
A contributing factor worth noting is PlayStation's recent move to phase out physical game discs by 2028. Kojima has openly criticized this transition to a fully digital model, expressing concerns over game ownership and accessibility. He described this shift as losing real ownership since gamers would essentially be licensing access through subscription-like services rather than owning a physical product. This ideological misalignment between Kojima Productions and PlayStation likely played a role in their split, especially given Kojima's preference for maintaining options beyond purely digital distribution.