Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "HIDEO KOJIMA REVEALS WHAT HAPPENED WITH SONY'S PHYSINT CANCELATION"

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠⁠Join The Normandy For Ad-Free NME, Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠⁠ In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz breaks down Hideo Kojima’s Physint switching from PlayStation to Xbox. Covering Sony’s June 2026 funding withdrawal, Bloomberg’s reports on budget and schedule concerns, Kojima Productions’ strong response affirming its healthy finances and PlayStation relationship, Xbox’s takeover as publisher, Bill Skarsgård as lead, and the unresolved question of multi-platform release. Essential analysis of this major shift for the Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor now in active development.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/analytic-dreamz-notorious-mass-effect/exclusive-contentPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Shepard promise me you'll tell them to subscribe for ad free content. Now of course, we've seen this before. As the particular year 2015, if you don't remember, Konami split with the one and only Kojima. You guys. See, that's the problem. They remove Kojima production Brandon. They canceled Silent Heels. And of course, they forced this student.

studios disbandment. Shepherd. Just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? Safe to say, after Kojima left, things started to look increasingly bad for that studio as far as Konami because of how much credibility from a quality standpoint, Kojima offered.

Now, in the year of 2026, ladies and gentlemen, we're seeing the same story. I know that ain't who I think it is. Now, of course, to be fair, with Sony and Kojima not working together anymore, they say that it is still more of an amicable relationship and that Sony simply told Kojima that we're not funding your newest product. So now, when you look at the way that Konami handled Kojima, and as of right now, because it could change drastically, but looking at the way that Sony handled Kojima, It seems as if Sony handled him much better than Konami did. So you probably wondering to yourself, why would they have beef in the first place as far as Sony and Kojima? Did they just have Death Stranding?

Didn't they just have Death Stranding too? Well, yes, ladies and gentlemen, they did. But of course over here at Anatoid at Notorious Mass Effect, we began to the gaming and music IPs that notoriously affected masses. It's safe to say Sony looked at the Death Stranding two numbers and they said, themselves. I just don't like it, man. You know what I mean? I just don't like that shit, man. All these millions of dollars being set to Kojima and those are the numbers he came back with. Now, to be fair, when you look at Alenia Analytics, which is a third party analytics reporter who

sells their info, right? Because basically these companies are not going to come out and give you the numbers. So going through the credible site that is Alenia Analytics, when you look at Death Stranding 2's, specifically. It had 2.5 million copies sold, 1.8 million on PS5, and of course, 700,000 on PC. The budget was estimated to be $100 million for death stranding 1, but it was reported to be $150 to $200 million for death stranding 2. Now, reportedly, the pair roughly broke even slash modest margins after cost slash marketing. So none of that. these reports even from third party sites are saying that kojima lost sony money but i believe sony is looking at certain gains that may or may not be live services in the way that they

printed money hand over fists compared to their budget that they were offered and they're saying to themselves why fund a new kojima project when it's going to have maybe modest results at the very minimum at least or break even but they are looking at looking at live service games wanting to print money hand over fists, which is why you get all these Concord type of games coming through the Sony infrastructure. So anyways, if you don't know, Sony let Kojima go. And basically it was through a Zoom call. So Kojima basically came out and said during a Zoom call, they said they are no longer, they are no longer funding Fizant.

I think that's how you said. So with that being said, Fizant was originally announced as a. PlayStation Associated Action Espionage game and described by Kojima as a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid. I know that ain't who I think it is. That's why I started off with the whole horrendous Konami and Kojima split because this one between Sony and Kojima doesn't seem as bad, but of course maybe they're just trying to save face just in case they work together in the future because you already know,

Kojima is definitely not working with Konami in the near future. So anyways, during the Zoom call, I want to see if I can find it. So, Kojima, after being told that Fizint wouldn't be funded through a Zoom call, he pitched Fisant to multiple parties and received positive reactions. And of course, you already knew who stepped up to take the, basically who stepped up to fund the new game. I know that ain't who I think it is. As of course, Xbox came and said they could provide technical support and funding. I was saying to myself.

But then, you know what I'm saying? I was like, hold on. Now I know this ain't the studio. That just laid off a plethora of gaming developer companies. And now they got money for Kojima? Where that come from? You guys. See, that's the problem.

As if you don't know, Xbox cut 3,200 employees. Right. Like actual humans that probably maybe have families trying to put food on the table. Xbox cut a plethora of those individuals as when you look at some of the biggest studios as far as double fine, as far as compulsion independent, as far as ninja theory, as far as all these other companies being having a heavier workload because of the cuts. For example, Halo going to Activision. They're like, hey, we're paying you all this money, Activision. You take Halo now because we're cutting the jobs, right? We're cutting the jobs and double in the workload of the employees we still retain. So when you look at Asha, Sharma, coming out and basically saying that the business is not as healthy,

and that is why they had to cut all these jobs, it makes you wonder, how in the world did they find all this money for Kojima? And then you come to realize the world's not fair. You guys, that's the problem. If you don't know, Kojima is a pretty big deal in the gaming industry. Metal gear solid put to the side. straining in my opinion is a pretty creative project and when you look at the numbers like i just listed off earlier in this segment it's not like he's losing sony money but it's not like he's having

live service type of success which is where i believe sony started to get upset at because now they're looking at all this money they're giving their kojima and they're probably saying to themselves we're not giving you all these 300 million dollars just to be just to be breaking even we want some hand over fist it's going to give you this hand over fist budget right so now with them saying they're not going to fund visit anymore you come to realize the x-box stepped into the fray after cutting almost 4 000 jobs and they basically was like hey guess what we're going to give you around a hundred to 200 million dollars and now you know i know i know that ain't who i think it is i just know ninja theory watching this saying to themselves i know that ain't who i think it is i just know double fine looking at this kojima xbox

story saying to themselves I mean, I just know. All right, y'all get the point. Basically, Xbox found his money out of nowhere when they said the reason why they're cutting jobs is because they have no money. Make that make sense. You guys.

See, that's the problem. So anyways, when you look at Kojima and Xbox's partnership, this does not mean that it's going to be only on Xbox as far as a physic game. But to be fair, PlayStation is currently winning the console war by an egregious margin. And no, this is not me,

picking Sony over Xbox or vice versa. This is me giving the objective analytics as far as PlayStation 5 outselling the Xbox and the Xbox series, uh, the Xbox series X and S five to one. For everyone Xbox S or S, uh, X or S console sold a PS5 has already sold like five times. Basically, that's the, that's the, that's the lamest term, how far the gap is. So PlayStation objectively had 72% of the console market gen, right? when you look at the hardware

combined with the user base compared to Xbox, it would make absolutely no sense for Kojima to make this an Xbox exclusive because how in the world are you going to get those 72% of console gamers that are on PlayStation to jump

over the Xbox? It's probably not going to happen, right? The best case scenario for me, and which is why I believe the relationship is still being said it's amicable on both sides is because i believe it's maybe a hot take i believe kojima definitely needs playstation because if you're on the console that's already winning the consul war quote unquote as far as the market share why in the world would you make an exclusive for the competitor

that only has 28% of the console market right because reportedly when you look at PlayStation and how and why they arranged a whole Zoom call that happened in June 2026. They basically said that there was a lot of things that they had, you know, there was a lot of things they had discreferences about as far as the funding because when you look at the investment, when you look at the exclusivity as far as on Sony, you come to realize that Sony was just like just this, makes no sense for while we're giving so much money to Kojima. So we're just going to call him through a Zoom call and let him know we're no longer giving him more money.

So that's the lamest terms, right? So now that he's with Xbox, he also has another game because you probably don't know about this one, but there's this game called OD, which is like a horror game, right? And apparently it's like OD on fear. That's the whole like pathway to going down as far as from a narrative aspect. And it's testing the fear threshold, co-written by Jordan Peel. So if you didn't know that, Kojima, Jordan Peel, the working on a game titled OD, and it was already an upcoming Xbox published horror title.

So this partnership is now like at the left field after Sony dropped them. But Kojima is keeping positive, well, quote unquote, positive relationships with Sony, because I think he realizes the amount of percentage that PlayStation has over console gamers. I'm not talking about gamers as a whole, but if you put your games out primarily through console, you come to realize that you probably won't want an Xbox exclusive with them having 28% of the console market share. So, anyways, we're going to see when the OD game comes out. I believe it could come out way earlier than Fizzint because I think Fizzing is still showing like its cast or whatever. Like I don't even think it's close to being made.

When it comes to OD, the speculative window is late 2027. early 2028. But once again, these aren't confirmed. This is just behind the scenes reports. So when it comes to OD, I believe it should come out before it isn't.

So another thing I was want to get into because it was a lot to get into with this Kojima and Sony beef because in layman's terms, you look at it as if Kojima is a highly talented director, right? But the revenue is not the same as Sony's

live service platforms that's under the Sony umbrella, which is why they would rather go with live service Concord type games rather than fund highly creative that may have modest revenue, right? So anyways, modest ROI. Let's just say it like that. Or maybe break even when it comes to Gojima and death strand and two. So I think ultimately Xbox is doing this to have another massive. sky under their umbrella.

Will it be exclusive? I believe they shouldn't have any more exclusives. It really doesn't make too much sense. I think the biggest thing they could do is giving extra incentives to people who own the Xbox console, but making it absolutely exclusive. The Xbox will hurt the overall revenue, which is not all about money. If you make a product that you're really proud of and you're passionate about, why not put it in the most in front of the most eyeballs possible instead of making it.

it Xbox exclusive. I mean, you could put it on PC that's definitely an option. But Xbox and PC compared to Xbox PC and PlayStation, I think the revenue would be changed drastically if you exclude a Kojima project from PlayStation. So it may be a hot take. I'm glad that Xbox is giving funding to a creative director like Kojima by the end of the day, excluding it from PlayStation when this game comes out, which hasn't been confirmed, but I'm just saying and hypothetical lamb if this game was to be excluded from Sony I think revenue wise it would definitely

hurt it a lot so hurt the revenue a lot so I'm trying to see what else yeah Kojima came out with a whole post I forget what he he came out with a post basically talking about how they're still on good terms and here it is

analytic dreams video on Spotify to see the video along with the audio because here here we go so here is Hydeo Kojima basically talking about the split from PlayStation He said, so in June, let me switch my screen right quick. So he said, basically, Cojima said, quote, so in June,

SIE said they, which is Sony Interactive Entertainment, said they wanted to have a Zoom call. They said they can no longer fund development of visit. I was shocked and I said, what did you say? It's not funny, but like, why do you, anyways, I couldn't quite process what they had said. I wasn't sure because I was in shock. Imagine being in a boardroom or a Zoom call.

They're going over everything in the world. They were like, yeah, we're putting belt. We're putting BT on Xbox right now. We got over like 70% of the console market share. By the way, we ain't going to fund your game, Kojima. Yeah, but also when we, and then cojima was like, hold up now. No, stop the presses. I don't care about all that success you're having in the console market share.

What did you just say about my game? It's like, oh, yeah, buddy, we're not, we're not fun of your game anymore. You got to find that somewhere else. Sad day in history, man Look at the state of gaming Like what is going on? So basically he went on to say Quote

What did you say? I couldn't quite process What they had said? I wasn't sure because I was in shock We didn't understand the reason I didn't have any anger or sadness My first thought was What am I going to do

With my studio? You guys It's almost like Haven't He's a PG podcast But let's just say Kojima had himself a baddie right and they said you know what it's not you it's me you guys see that's the problem and then after

that cojima was like you know what i bet xbox would still take me back i know that ain't who i think so anyways uh continuing with his quote uh quote he said i didn't have any anger or sadness my first thought was what am i going to do with my studio if we lose one contract i thought i might have to cut all the people goodness gracious every single one of them How much money was Sony giving them? Shepard. All right, my fault. I might have to cut all the people working on Fizzint

or our studio can end up collapsing because we'll run out of cash flow. Interesting. Shepard. Just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? Ladies and gentlemen, the state of gaming is definitely live service. Now, I don't know who needs to hear this,

but companies are greedy, right? the basically the origin of all of these layoffs is greed because you come to realize they do not want to fun highly creative games that's fantastic

with only a little revenue over as far as the ROI for example high fire rush right I could get plenty examples for example Prince of Persia there's a lot of high quality high creative games that just barely jump over the budget to where

oh, they're making more money than we actually gave them. But then you have your fortnights. But then you have your NBA 2Ks. But then you have all your other ball and gun games. And you come to realize that live service, when you look at the profit margin, it just makes way more sense to, well, from a business head, and makes way more sense to double down on those because of bringing in a mammoth amount of revenue. and you come to realize all the live service games

are in the top five to ten on every single platform whether it's Nintendo, whether it's PC, whether it's Xbox, whether it's PlayStation, you just go through the top five on any of those platforms and you're just going to see live service galore. If there's not a live service game on there, it probably just came out or, yeah, it's basically it probably just came out.

Every live service game in the gaming industry is just leaps and bounds over a lot of other high-quality games as far as the story perspective, that doesn't have a multiplayer I forget what they call the whole season past slop

season past slop is not present at certain story games that may be fantastic whether it's Pragmatic and you saw that Pragmatta so well right? Sony's still probably looking at that saying to themselves you know what

I just don't like it man I just don't like that shit man imagine if Capcom actually took Pragmata and had multiple versions of Diana to where we made an extraction shooter. You know what I'm saying? I'm just saying.

That's probably what they're saying to themselves. Because not funding highly creative games like Kojima's project makes you wonder. What game is safe when it comes to these first-party exclusives? So anyways, that's the biggest thing I wanted to talk about. At the end of the day, Kojima versus Sony was not as acrimonious as it split with Konami, but it was still something to highlight because it's definitely a big change. and shift as far as the gaming industry because a highly talented director like Kojima being treated like this makes it to wear no game or no game director is safe.

So that being said, click my link to my bio to follow me on my social media. And of course, if you're on Spotify, where do you make of this Kojima and Sony split? And at the end of the day, do you believe that live service games are the downfall of creative games in the industry?