Hideo Kojima on PHYSINT

Almost everything publicly known about PHYSINT comes from Hideo Kojima talking about it. The game has no disclosed premise, no setting, no character names and no gameplay footage, so his own statements of intent are the only substantial material that exists. This page collects them with their dates and the settings in which they were made.

A caution on wording. Several of the passages below were delivered in Japanese and reached English through published translations. Treat them as accurate in substance rather than as verbatim English sentences, and prefer the sense of a passage over any single word in it.

The announcement, 31 January 2024

PHYSINT was announced on 31 January 2024 during a broadcast presentation by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which was then the project's publishing partner. Kojima appeared in a recorded video message alongside Hermen Hulst, at that time the head of PlayStation Studios. The statement of intent he gave there is still the fullest description of the project anyone has offered.

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.

Three things in that passage are worth separating out. The first is the flat statement that PHYSINT is a brand new original IP, which rules out a sequel, a remake and a licensed property. The second is the sequencing: preparations had begun, but full production was to start only after Death Stranding 2 was finished. The third is the fortieth anniversary he refers to, which is of his own career in game production and by his own count falls in 2026. The Sony framing in the same passage has since been superseded; see Publisher History.

He continued with the ambition that has stayed attached to the project ever since.

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.

Why he decided to make it, 9 February 2024

Nine days after the announcement, Kojima devoted a special edition of his own video programme to the decision. His account is unusually personal for a project announcement, and it turns on an illness rather than on a design idea.

...in the last eight years, every day on social media, from users all around the world, people have been asking me to create another Metal Gear and stuff like that. Then, I fell ill in 2020. It was also during the pandemic, so I was sick and isolated during all of it. I even had surgery. And I thought, "I can't anymore." I was at my lowest and felt like I couldn't go back to making games. I wrote a will, too. And in that moment, I realized that people die. But, I turned 60 last year. I'll turn 70 in ten years. I hope to never retire. Having said that, if the users desire it so much, I thought I should change my priorities a bit. I still want to do new things, but I decided to make an action espionage game.

He gives no further detail about the illness in that passage, and none has been published since. Note what the earlier series is doing in this quotation: it is the reason an audience kept asking, and therefore part of why he returned to the genre. It is not a statement that anything from it appears in PHYSINT. Nothing from it has been announced as appearing in this game. See Genre and Influences.

In the same programme he described a conversation with the film director Guillermo del Toro, which he credits with resolving the conflict between wanting to make a film and running a studio.

I get many requests from Hollywood to make films, but I've refused them. Because I have my own company now, I can't leave for one or two years to go make a movie. The company would collapse. I was in a tough spot. And I talked to Guillermo del Toro about it. And he said, "Hideo, what you're making is already a movie. Keep going as you are." His words saved me.

A game and a movie at the same time

The clearest version of the film-and-games ambition also comes from the February 2024 programme, and it is stated as a test rather than as a slogan.

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.

The closing sentence is the honest part of it. He set the ambition and immediately said he did not know how far it could be taken. Nothing released since has demonstrated the result, because no gameplay footage has been shown at all; see Media and Assets.

On stage, 23 September 2025

At the studio's tenth-anniversary event, Kojima described development as still early and said casting was still in progress. His remarks on stage were about people and about the order of the studio's work rather than about the game's design.

For me, working with people I like helps me live longer, because I can go to work and say, "I want to meet them". We need to experiment with technology, and there's so much more to do, but before that, I need to make OD.

Naming OD as the thing that has to come first is a statement about scheduling. OD is a separate Kojima Productions project and nothing Kojima has said about its design applies here. For the rest of that event, see Beyond The Strand Reveal.

December 2025: refusing the easy version

An interview published in December 2025 produced the most informative thing Kojima has said about how PHYSINT is being built, which is that he is deliberately refusing to build it the obvious way.

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.

Four things in that passage carry weight, and one of them is routinely over-read.

• The infiltration loop is not a feature list. He offers it as the version of the game he could produce without effort, and then says plainly that it is what the project is fighting against. It describes a starting point he is reacting to, not a confirmed mechanic in PHYSINT.

• "New gimmicks" is as specific as he gets. He names no system, no verb and no device.

• Film staff, not only film actors. This extends the film-and-games ambition from casting into the production crew, which is a new detail relative to 2024.

• The social-themes remark is the closest thing to a thematic disclosure that exists. He says the game depicts social structures and themes, and that current events may overtake them before it ships. He does not say which structures, which themes, or what setting they sit in. It should be recorded as exactly that much and no more.

That last sentence is the single most extrapolated line in all PHYSINT coverage. It confirms that the game has contemporary social subject matter in it. It confirms nothing about what that subject matter is.

On the change of publisher, September 2026

On 10 September 2026 Kojima gave his own account of the year in which the project nearly ended.

As confirmed earlier through our official channels, in mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the PHYSINT project. PHYSINT is an important project both to me personally and to KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. Determined to keep the project alive, we have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner. In the course of seeking advice and pursuing negotiations with people across many fields, we found in XBOX a partner with whom we share a common vision for the future, and we have decided to team up with them once again. Please rest assured that development of PHYSINT, our genre-defining action-espionage title, is ongoing and will continue moving forward.

The publishing announcement issued a day earlier carried a shorter statement from him.

This expands our relationship with XBOX beyond OD. As we move forward with the development of PHYSINT, we remain committed to redefining the action-espionage genre for players around the world.

He has given no reason for the earlier partner's withdrawal, and the withdrawing party gave none in its own statement. Explanations that circulate do not trace to either party. The full sequence is documented in Publisher History and the production timeline in Development Status.

What he has not said

Every entry below was checked on 2026-09-12. Re-check them rather than carrying the date forward.

For the consolidated version of this list, see What We Know and What We Don't.