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Announcement and Reveal History
September 12, 2026 at 02:32 PM
Updated internal link states after new pages were added (2026-09-12)
The public history of PHYSINT is short and precisely dated. Between the announcement in January 2024 and 12 September 2026 there were six occasions on which anything new was released: the announcement itself, a follow-up broadcast, two interviews, one live event, and one change of publishing partner. This page records each of them with what was actually shown or said, rather than what was inferred afterwards.
Date | Occasion | What was new |
|---|---|---|
31 January 2024 | PlayStation State of Play broadcast | The project itself: title, developer, genre, publisher |
9 February 2024 | Kojima's own video programme | His reasons for returning to the genre |
May 2025 | Interview | An estimate that another five or six years of work remained |
23 September 2025 | Beyond The Strand anniversary event | First poster, first three cast members, a scanned character model |
December 2025 | Interview | Design intent, new gimmicks, and a remark about the game's themes |
9 to 10 September 2026 | Statements from three parties | A change of publisher, set out on Publisher History |
PHYSINT was announced during a PlayStation State of Play broadcast on 31 January 2024. The segment was a video message rather than a trailer. Hideo Kojima appeared to introduce the project, and Hermen Hulst, then Head of PlayStation Studios, appeared alongside him in a short message. No gameplay footage was shown, and no platform and no release date were given.
Kojima's message, in translation:
"It will be a brand new, original IP, a next-generation action espionage game. Preparations are underway, but production will begin in earnest at Kojima Productions after Death Stranding 2. We have extensive experience with Sony, having grown the espionage genre together for almost 30 years. Also, Sony not only does games, but also music and movies. It will definitely be a strong collaboration. Two years from now, I will celebrate the 40th anniversary of my game production career. I am confident that this title will be the culmination of my work."
"I cannot tell you so much now, but we plan to bring together cutting-edge technology and talent from around the world to create it. Of course, it's an interactive game, but it is also a movie at the same time, in terms of look, story, theme, cast, acting, fashion, and sound. With this title, we hope to transcend the barriers between film and video games."
Kojima Productions posted its own announcement video the same day, in English and in Japanese, both framed as the studio officially announcing a new action-espionage game on State of Play. The PlayStation upload described PHYSINT as "a new project coming to PlayStation". That description belonged to the Sony arrangement, which ended in 2026, and it is not a current platform statement.
On 9 February 2024 Kojima explained the decision to make the game on a special edition of his own video programme. He described the project as a game and a movie at once:
"We're going to make a new action espionage game in cooperation with Sony. It will be both a game and a movie at the same time. That's why we were at Sony Pictures. Of course, it will be a game. However, 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."
In the same broadcast he gave a personal account of why he returned to the genre, covering years of requests from players, his 2020 illness, and a conversation with the film director Guillermo del Toro. That account is set out at length on Hideo Kojima on PHYSINT.
An interview published in May 2025 carried the only public statement about how much work remained:
"Besides Death Stranding 2, there is Physint in development. That will take me another five or six years. Maybe after that, I could finally decide to tackle a film."
This is an estimate of remaining development time made in May 2025. It is not a release window, it was not presented as one, and it predates both the June 2026 cancellation and the three-month gap that followed. It should not be used to derive a year. See Development Status.
Kojima Productions held its 10th anniversary event, Beyond The Strand, on 23 September 2025 at a cinema in Roppongi Hills, Japan. PHYSINT was the fifth of eight announcements made there. The studio released the first poster and key visual, revealed the first three cast members, and showed a 3D-scanned character model described as still in development. Kojima said development was still early and that he was still casting actors.
This is the only event at which PHYSINT visual material has ever been released. It is covered in full on Beyond The Strand Reveal, and the assets themselves are listed on Media and Assets.
An interview published in December 2025 contains the closest thing to a design statement the project has produced:
"As for Physint, because it's an espionage game, I could practically make it in my sleep. For example, you have a soldier who infiltrates, gets stopped by the enemy, gets attacked, and sneaks around to take them out one by one. No matter how that plays out, it's fun and easy to make. But that's also what we're trying to fight against. This new game introduces new gimmicks, and we're also taking on the challenge of crossing the line between film and games. I'm thinking of working not just with film actors but with film staff on the production side too, though I wonder how that will all turn out. Right now the times are changing so quickly that the social structures and themes I'm trying to depict in the game might end up appearing in the real world before the game is finished."
No specific gimmick has been described, no theme has been named, and no film production staff have been announced.
On 9 September 2026 Xbox announced that it would publish PHYSINT, with statements from Asha Sharma and from Hideo Kojima. Kojima Productions published its own confirmation on 10 September 2026 BST, and Sony Interactive Entertainment confirmed separately that PlayStation Studios had stepped away from the project. Kojima's statement gave the first public account of a cancellation notice received in mid-June 2026 and a three-month search for a new partner. The full text of all four statements is on Publisher History.
As of 2026-09-12, no PHYSINT reveal has ever included gameplay footage, a platform, a release date, a character name, a location, or a plot summary. Six occasions across two and a half years produced eight public assets and no gameplay. A running account of the gaps is kept on What We Know and What We Don't.
