PHYSINT

PHYSINT is in development at Kojima Productions with Xbox as publishing partner, following PlayStation's withdrawal in mid-2026. Bill Skarsgård is confirmed as the lead, and Hideo Kojima says the plot is complete.

Synthesized from 10 Yomimono stories · updated 3d ago

PHYSINT was announced in 2024 as a new espionage action game directed by Hideo Kojima. In mid-June 2026, Sony Interactive Entertainment notified Kojima Productions that the project would be canceled, according to Kojima. The studio spent about three months searching for a new partner and signed with Xbox. Kojima Productions announced the Xbox partnership on September 10, 2026, ending its collaboration with PlayStation Studios. The Xbox deal expands on an existing collaboration behind OD, another Kojima Productions title set for Xbox Game Studios.

Casting has moved forward since the partner change. On September 17, 2026, during the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 Broadcast, Kojima Productions announced Bill Skarsgård as the lead. He joins Charlie Fraser, Ma Dong-seok, and Minami Hamabe, whose involvement was announced earlier. Kojima said he had long been a fan of Skarsgård's work and that Skarsgård is also a fan of his. Casting, actor scans, and work with outside creators are ongoing, and more cast announcements are planned.

On October 5, 2026, Kojima said on the radio program Kojima 10 that the plot for PHYSINT is complete and that he wants to make a spy action game with new elements. He also said the unannounced actors are all actors he loves and that about 70 percent of the cast are fans of his work. The most recent confirmed status is that development continues with Xbox. Release date and price are undecided.

Key facts

Publishing partner: Xbox, following PlayStation's withdrawal ↗
Lead actor: Bill Skarsgård plays the protagonist ↗
Plot status: Complete, according to Hideo Kojima ↗
Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Charlie Fraser, Ma Dong-seok, and Minami Hamabe confirmed ↗
Release date: Undecided ↗
Director: Hideo Kojima ↗

Timeline

Oct 6, 2026 Kojima Says OD Should Arrive Without A Teaser As PHYSINT Plot Nears Completion
Oct 3, 2026 Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Says Division Is Not for Sale
Sep 19, 2026 Kojima Productions Says PHYSINT Development Continues With Xbox
Sep 17, 2026 Hideo Kojima Says OD: KNOCK Development Is on Track at Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026
Sep 17, 2026 Bill Skarsgård Confirmed as Lead of Kojima's PHYSINT
Sep 14, 2026 Kojima Poses With Xbox Chief Asha Sharma As She Visits Kojima Productions
Sep 11, 2026 PlayStation Pulls Out Of PHYSINT As Kojima Productions Turns To Xbox
Sep 10, 2026 Kojima Productions Shifts PHYSINT From PlayStation to Xbox Partnership
Aug 31, 2026 Kojima Productions Opens Mid-Career Hiring Push for OD and Physint
Aug 29, 2026 Kojima And Ma Dong-seok's Long-Running Friendship Precedes PHYSINT Role

Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every fact links the story it came from.

Facts

Announced: The plot for the espionage action game PHYSINT is complete (Koji10 radio program) · 2026-10-06
Announced: Bill Skarsgård will play the lead (Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 Broadcast) · 2026-09-17
Noted: Development continues with Xbox as a new partner · 2026-10-06
Noted: announced without a release date · 2026-09-14
Noted: PHYSINT has no release date or price decided. · 2026-09-10
Release: game · February 2024 · 2026-09-17
Licensed by: xbox-game-studios (global) · 2026-09-10

Connections

Produces of: kojima productions, sie, playstation, xbox, xbox game studios
Voice cast of: bill skarsgard, ma dong seok, minami hamabe
Directs of: hideo kojima

Structured graph also available as JSON at /public/entities/physint. CC BY 4.0.

Claim activity

When a claim about PHYSINT was confirmed, debunked, or disputed against open-web sources. The record stays even after a claim drops off the facts list.

Confirmed The plot for the espionage action game PHYSINT is complete Oct 6 · source

All coverage

Oct 6

Kojima Says OD Should Arrive Without A Teaser As PHYSINT Plot Nears Completion

Hideo Kojima discussed Kojima Productions' two announced titles, OD and PHYSINT, on episode 36 of the radio program Kojima 10, which streamed on TBS Radio's official YouTube channel from 10:00 PM on October 5. Kojima said he wants to release the horror game OD without saying anything and does not want to put out a teaser either. For the espionage action game PHYSINT, the plot is already complete, and Kojima said he wants to make a spy action game with new elements, a somewhat different one. Both games were announced earlier, OD in 2023 and PHYSINT in 2024. On casting, Kojima said the unannounced actors are all actors he loves, and that most of them like him too, adding that about 70 percent of the cast members are fans of his work.

Oct 3

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Says Division Is Not for Sale

Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, told The New York Times in an interview published September 30 that the division will not be sold, directly addressing rumors that followed the company's large-scale reorganization. Sharma took over the gaming division in February 2026 after Phil Spencer stepped down. Under the "Xbox Reset," the company announced layoffs of about 1,600 people in July and said it would cut roughly 3,200 people this fiscal year. She said Xbox will proceed from a long-term perspective and will consider the right partners and operating model. Sharma also addressed the partnership with Kojima Productions on the new action espionage title PHYSINT, saying she is pleased Hideo Kojima chose to work with Xbox. She said the cooperative relationship with Sony will continue and that competition and collaboration can coexist.

Sep 19

Kojima Productions Says PHYSINT Development Continues With Xbox

Kojima Productions issued an official statement on September 20 responding to online speculation about why the publishing partner for PHYSINT changed. The studio said the articles in question were not based on official or documented reliable sources and asked readers to judge them carefully. According to the statement, Kojima Productions is in a healthy and profitable state, PHYSINT development is progressing smoothly in cooperation with Xbox, and the studio's relationship with PlayStation remains strong. The speculation covered the studio's relationship with PlayStation, the commercial performance of the Death Stranding series, and the production plans and investment for PHYSINT. Kojima Productions said the speculation and defamatory statements affect fans, creative partners, and people it has worked with for 30 years, and that overlooking the situation could have a serious impact on the studio and related parties. The statement closes by thanking fans for their continued support.

Sep 17

Hideo Kojima Says OD: KNOCK Development Is on Track at Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026

Hideo Kojima appeared during the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 Broadcast on September 17 and gave a status update on OD: KNOCK, the horror project in development at Kojima Productions. Performance capture work, which had been suspended because of a strike, resumed this year and is moving according to plan. Kojima named Sophia Lillis and Hunter Schafer as the lead actors and asked viewers to look forward to their performances. He described the project as an unprecedented and completely new challenging game that pushes the limits of horror, and said that after repeated trial and error and experimentation the work is gradually taking shape. He added that he feels it is coming together and asked audiences to wait a while longer for more information. The broadcast ran from 19:00, and after the stream Kojima walked on stage at Xbox FanFest Tokyo, held alongside Tokyo Game Show 2026.

Sep 17

Bill Skarsgård Confirmed as Lead of Kojima's PHYSINT

Kojima Productions announced on September 17, 2026, during the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 Broadcast, that Bill Skarsgård will play the lead in PHYSINT, the new spy action title directed by Hideo Kojima. Skarsgård plays the protagonist, the character the player controls. A new teaser visual uses photos Kojima took himself of Skarsgård and Charlie Fraser during costume fittings, scans, and camera tests held earlier this year. Skarsgård joins a cast that already includes Fraser, Ma Dong-seok, and Minami Hamabe, whose involvement was announced earlier. Kojima said he had long been a fan of Skarsgård's work and that Skarsgård is also a fan of his, and that the tests left him confident in the project's direction. Casting, actor scans, and work with outside creators are ongoing, and more cast announcements are planned. In the same message, Kojima said performance capture and ADR recording on the horror game OD resumed this year after the SAG-AFTRA strike suspension.

Sep 14

Kojima Poses With Xbox Chief Asha Sharma As She Visits Kojima Productions

Asha Sharma, who leads Microsoft's Xbox division, visited Kojima Productions in Japan and appeared in a photo with Hideo Kojima that he posted to social media. Sharma took over the Xbox division after Phil Spencer, who had led it since 2014. Game Spark notes the visit could involve discussion of Kojima's projects PHYSINT and OD, both announced without release dates.

Sep 11

PlayStation Pulls Out Of PHYSINT As Kojima Productions Turns To Xbox

Kojima Productions says PlayStation withdrew from PHYSINT, the espionage game it had been developing with Sony. Hideo Kojima said a notice stating the project would be canceled arrived from Sony Interactive Entertainment in mid-June, and that the studio spent three months seeking a new partner before signing with Xbox. PlayStation said its relationship with Kojima remains strong after 30 years of collaboration.

Sep 10

Kojima Productions Shifts PHYSINT From PlayStation to Xbox Partnership

Kojima Productions announced on September 10, 2026 that its new-generation action espionage game PHYSINT will be published in partnership with Xbox, ending its collaboration with PlayStation Studios. Hideo Kojima said Sony Interactive Entertainment notified him in mid-June 2026 that the in-production PHYSINT project would be canceled. Kojima wrote on X that PHYSINT is an important project for him and for Kojima Productions, so he spent about three months searching for a new partner and settled on Xbox, a party with whom he can share a vision for the future. The Xbox partnership expands on the existing collaboration behind OD, which is also set for Xbox Game Studios. Xbox division CEO Asha Sharma said Kojima's attitude of challenging conventional concepts is the kind of creativity Xbox wants to support. PlayStation Studios said it made the difficult decision to step away after careful consideration and continues to hold Kojima's vision for the game in deep respect. Release date and price for PHYSINT are undecided.

Aug 31

Kojima Productions Opens Mid-Career Hiring Push for OD and Physint

Kojima Productions is recruiting mid-career staff across design, engineering, planning, sound, localization, and production support. The studio is currently developing OD and Physint (working title) after the DEATH STRANDING series, and seeks talent with experience in consumer game development, photorealistic graphics, and tools built with C++, Python, and C#.

Aug 29

Kojima And Ma Dong-seok's Long-Running Friendship Precedes PHYSINT Role

Game Spark traced the history of Hideo Kojima and Ma Dong-seok's relationship in its Tonari no Hideo column, noting the actor's confirmed appearance in the newly announced PHYSINT. The column recounts a relationship stretching back to 2021, when Kojima mentioned the actor on X, through a 2022 Zoom call and a 2023 visit to Kojima Productions' studio, before Ma Dong-seok's cameo in DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH.