After touring the wastelands of extinction-level events in Death Stranding, what’s next for Hideo Kojima? The veteran game designer is keeping busy with two projects that Xbox will publish, and one of them is a return to his roots of tactics, espionage, and action: Physint. Still years away, Physint is already building buzz ahead of its eventual release, with new details slowly trickling out as development continues. First revealed during the PlayStation State of Play January 2024 showcase, here’s everything that we know about it so far.
Physint release date
Physint doesn’t have a release date yet, and don’t expect it to be out for quite some time. Kojima himself has said as much, as the earliest release window for the game could be as far away as 2030. Back in 2025, Kojima said he’d just started work on his horror game OD and that Physint was in a “conceptual” stage of development.
Physint platforms
With the game so far away, we could be looking at a next-gen release when it does eventually arrive. Now that Xbox has stepped in to publish and help develop it, it’s a safe bet that it’ll launch for PC and whatever form the next-gen Xbox console, Project Helix, eventually takes.
Physint cast
Death Stranding 1 and 2 saw Kojima team up with several famous faces to play characters in his post-apocalyptic world, and for Physint, he already has several big names attached to it. Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard (It, Boy Kills World) will play the lead role in the game, and he’ll be joined by Charlee Fraser (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Don Lee (Train to Busan), and Minami Hamabe (Godzilla: Minus One).
“We are both longtime fans of each other’s work, and we’ve decided to embark on this new adventure together,” Kojima said in a press statement about the casting of Skarsgard. “The costume fittings, scans, and camera tests we conducted with Bill and Charlee earlier this year gave me tremendous confidence in the direction of the project.”
Physint gameplay
So far, the only glimpse we’ve had of Physint to date is a teaser poster featuring the game’s protagonist, cloaked in shadows. The tagline for the game is “here comes the feeling,” and Kojima has teased that Physint will “break the barrier” between movies and games.
That’s not an unusual approach for him to take, given that his projects usually have multiple lengthy cutscenes, and Kojima is aiming to push the limits of video game graphics to new heights. “If your mother walks in and sees you playing this game, she’ll think you’re watching a movie. I’m not sure how far we can take it yet,” Kojima said in a HideoTube episode.
We also know that Physint will be a spiritual successor to Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series. The developer says that he was inspired to develop Physint after recovering from a severe bout of illness during the COVID pandemic; he wanted to respond to fan requests to create another Metal Gear. Having already proven that he could still create original experiences with Death Stranding and OD, Physint was born from a desire to respond to his fanbase.
Physint development
Physint was originally being developed in partnership with PlayStation, but its parent company Sony later confirmed that it would no longer be working with Kojima Productions on it. The official statement never provided a reason why Sony decided to drop the game, but scuttlebutt from around the industry suggested that the Death Stranding games hadn’t generated massive returns for the time and money spent on them. According to a Bloomberg report, people familiar with the project had expressed concerns about Physint’s development, as it had reportedly missed deadlines and was going over budget.
Fortunately, Xbox stepped in to save the project. “We’re honored that Kojima-san has chosen Xbox to work with Kojima Productions on Physint,” Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a statement. “His ambition to challenge conventions reflects the kind of creativity we want to support at Xbox.”
Kojima assured fans that despite the change in publishers, development on Physint “is ongoing and will continue moving forward,” even in its current early phase.