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Despite mountains of hype, Death Stranding didn’t make enough money to keep Kojima at PlayStation
Hideo Kojima’s last two games failed to meet sales expectations, so PlayStation is letting Xbox handle his next one.
NewsbyTrent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer
Published on Fri Sep 11 2026
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Earlier this week, everyone was shocked by the news thatPlayStation was breaking ties with Hideo Kojima.Despite being one of the most recognizable names in video games, Kojima says he had “unexpectedly received notice” that PlayStation was pulling funding from his upcoming game, Physint. Now, there are reports that it was the underperformance of the Death Stranding series that ultimately caused the split between Kojima and PlayStation.
It was a big shock to the gaming community when it was announced on September 9, 2026 that PlayStation would no longer be funding Kojima’s next game, Physint. They had been expected to fund and publish the title, which is still in early development and does not have a release window yet. Shortly after the announcement, Xbox said that they were picking up the project.
No official announcement was given for why PlayStation soured on working with Hideo Kojima, but Jason Schreier from Bloomberg reports that a major factor in the decision was that the two Death Stranding games “didn’t meet PlayStation’s revenue expectations.” Despite the massive hype behind the games at launch and the Hollywood cast, Death Stranding failed to deliver in the one area that Sony needed it to – in sales.
It was also reported that Physint has missed multiple deadlines already and was likely to run over budget. This, combined with Kojima’s recent track record for delivering artistic games that commercially underperform, caused PlayStation to cut their losses.
Now Xbox is picking up where PlayStation left off to help Hideo Kojima deliver a game that will (hopefully) justify the huge hype that comes with his games.
The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We’ve got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:
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Trent Cannon: Trent is a freelance writer who has been covering anime, video games, and pop culture for a decade. (He/Him)
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