Microsoft reportedly does not plan to cancel Hideo Kojima’s OD. The mysterious project is therefore expected to survive the latest wave of Xbox-wide cost-cutting, though it remains unclear whether OD is anywhere close to release.
OD was originally announced during the December 2023 edition of The Game Awards. Its first teaser showed several characters becoming increasingly distressed, underlining that the title was envisioned as a horror experience at its core. Subsequent patent filings from Kojima Productions pointed to OD incorporating something called the Social Scream System, a multiplayer component of a sort. Kojima later indicated as much, but OD has received few updates in the years since its official reveal. Recent reports of major restructuring and cost-cutting at Xbox have thus prompted concern among some fans about the project’s fate.
What OD’s ‘Knock’ Could Mean
Kojima Productions released a new trailer for its enigmatic horror game OD, highlighting a prominent “knocking” motif that likely has deeper meaning.
OD Is Reportedly Still In Development
Xbox Problems Are Not OD’s Problems, For Now
According to a new report from IGN, a source familiar with Microsoft’s plans indicated that OD remains in development at Kojima Productions and is still being published by Xbox Game Studios. The report frames the project as one of the titles still moving forward while Microsoft reevaluates parts of its broader gaming slate, suggesting that Kojima’s horror-genre-subverting pitch for OD is still seen as a worthwhile pursuit in spite of Xbox’s shifting priorities.
The fact that OD is reportedly not in danger of cancellation does little to clarify its current development status. Formally announced in 2023, the game was later said to have entered pre-production around 2021. Modern AAA development cycles average about five years, which suggests Kojima’s upcoming project could be nearing a reveal or release window as of summer 2026. However, that assumes work on the mysterious game co-written by Jordan Peele has progressed at a steady pace, which may not be the case. OD was long speculated to have started as a Stadia pitch for an episodic horror game that Google rejected, and reworking the concept into a more conventional game that still uses cloud technology in some form could have been time-intensive.
OD‘s use of cloud technology has been touted since its reveal, though Kojima Productions has yet to explain how it will work. The fact that the game reportedly requires cloud infrastructure that only a few companies can provide at scale may help shield it from cancellation as Xbox pursues wider cost-cutting, as OD essentially doubles as an advertisement for the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. Kojima himself is also one of the best-known names in the industry, with a level of recognition that few video game designers have achieved and one that is closer to the Hollywood directors he often collaborates with. From that standpoint, canceling OD could have generated more negative publicity than scrapping a lower-profile project, which is another potential factor contributing to the support it continues to enjoy from Xbox.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
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Not every Xbox partner has fared as well as Kojima Productions during the ongoing restructuring. 007 First Light developer IO Interactive recently announced layoffs after Xbox pulled funding from its original RPG, code-named Project Fantasy. It remains unclear whether the game will still be released, though IOI did not indicate that it had been canceled. Xbox, for its part, has said its restructuring is not a cost-cutting effort in the broader sense, but part of a shift toward focusing on fewer popular IPs and moving resources away from other projects.
