Post

Oh my god, there really is no such thing as meeting a game publisher's expectations.

Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social

This week, PlayStation announced that it had pulled out of publishing Hideo Kojima's next game, Physint. But the company didn't give a reason. So I made some calls. Here's why PlayStation bailed and why Xbox snapped Kojima right up: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.comPlayStation Ditched Hideo Kojima’s ‘Physint’ on Budget Concerns, Missed DeadlinesThe legendary Japanese creator of ‘Death Stranding’ will take his new game to Xbox

Dead at last

@deadatlast.bsky.social

11 Sept

If production cost are to high because you spend money on things that lead nowhere you will lose money. If you lose money all the time why would you get more founding? Do people not know how companies work? Sony does not make games because they are gamers, they do it to make money.

Roger

@partlyhuman.com

11 Sept

Well, DS didn't lose money, but nonetheless, traditionally game publishers are in the business of publishing games, which sometimes involves risk. The question is, what is considered a good return on their investment?

Dead at last

@deadatlast.bsky.social

11 Sept

Depending a little bit on how the deal is set up but a return of at least 50% more then development cost is expected as a minimum and it needs to cover marketing as well. Kojima ia known for going over budget and doing a lot of things outside of scope.

Roger

@partlyhuman.com

That's likely part of it. I think the real story here is that PS isn't a traditional game publisher, since they'll profit at no risk off games they DON'T fund, so they're going to ask for a lot more of those they do, primarily exclusivity. Kojima's learned his lesson and won't budge on owning his IP

11/9/26, 8:25 pm0 reposts0 likes

Dead at last

@deadatlast.bsky.social

11 Sept

Sony out up all the money for kojima production so in this case I fully understand that they cut him off when the budget started going south and deadlines was not met.