It’s impossible to know how PlayStation bosses felt after seeing many critics walk away from Insomniac’s Wolverine with . A sub-80 on Metacritic is infamously considered a disaster in the triple-A space, and so Sony certainly won’t be thrilled, but it would be easy for the company to brush this away as an uncharacteristic miss. Even Capcom, across its , put out the middling Exoprimal, after all. However, that would require wilfully ignoring the sad reality that PlayStation Studios is currently far from fertile ground for single-player adventures.
What was once the miracle recipe behind Uncharted has now become the de facto template for almost every Sony project, resulting in an incredibly polished homogeneous mass. It’s a video game design rulebook later refined by the likes of The Last of Us and God of War: lavish cutscenes, approachable combat with a light sprinkling of RPG skills, sneaking through waist-high grass to perform simple stealth takedowns, and filling a rage meter to trigger an ultimate ability. Ten years ago, this was all incredibly exciting. Five years ago, it was comfortingly familiar. Today, it’s wearing thin. Never has it been clearer that PlayStation Studios needs to find the next evolutionary stage of the “traditional” video game. Never has it been clearer that it needs its next Metal Gear Solid, the revolutionary Hideo Kojima game that defined what we could expect from PlayStation back in 1998.
Now would be a very good time, then, for Sony to cancel Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation-exclusive spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid.“In mid-June of this year, we unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the Physint project,” explained Kojima in a recent social media post. The project is now, in a bizarre twist of fate, being financed by PlayStation’s direct competitor, Xbox. That itself is a whole cursed kettle of fish – it’s no doubt a kick in the teeth for the recently disbanded stealth specialists at Arkane to see Microsoft invest untold millions in a Kojima espionage game – but when it comes to PlayStation, the brand has cut ties with a distinctive creative powerhouse at a time when it’s in desperate need of a distinctive creative direction.
First announced during a Sony State of Play in early 2024, Physint was described as “a completely new 'Action Espionage' for the next-generation.” That specific wording, of course, is intended to evoke Metal Gear Solid, which sports the tagline “Tactical Espionage Action” across each of the series’ logos. The intention was crystal clear: Sony and Kojima were working together on a successor to MGS, and PlayStation would be the place to play it.
There are several obvious reasons why a new Metal Gear Solid in all but name would be good for PlayStation.“
There are several obvious reasons why a new Metal Gear Solid in all but name would be good for PlayStation (and now stands to be good for Xbox). The name “Kojima” is pretty much as important as the MGS brand itself, and so a new Kojima game is potentially good business. The team at Kojima Productions are talented creatives, and so Physint has a high chance of being a critical success. And, perhaps most important, culturally speaking, Kojima’s “walking simulator” Death Stranding series has proved divisive, and so PlayStation Xbox gets to be the stage for his glorious return to the genre he’s so beloved for.
But there was more to this union than cultural “victories” and brand recognition. PlayStation has never felt more stagnant. The PS5 has been something of a disaster generation for Sony, and while there are numerous terrible business decisions to talk of – from Concord to physical media to pay-extra-to-stand-your-console-vertically – I believe one of the most crucial problems is that the PlayStation identity has begun to crumble. Historically, PlayStation has been the place to play exceptional, elite-tier single-player games that were constantly on the cutting edge of the medium. It’s a near-30-year reputation that goes right back to 1998’s Metal Gear Solid. But since the PS5 arrived in 2020, it’s been near-impossible to find the brand’s historic innovation in cinematic adventures. Somewhat ironically, Kojima’s own Death Stranding 2 is the alarming outlier.
Four of this generation’s major first-party exclusives – Ghost of Yotei, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West – are almost indistinguishable from their PS4 predecessors when it comes to how they play. Never mind the fact that there is significant overlap between each game’s design language; there’s a real sense that this generation has done little to advance the art form that so many buy a PlayStation for. The age of the glittering PlayStation exclusive – the “genre” that helped elevate the PS3 out of arrogant mediocrity and define the PS4 – feels well and truly over.
Just as important, though, is the nostalgia and trust in Metal Gear Solid. While Physint will surely (hopefully) build atop MGS’s achievements with creative new ideas, the fact that it’s an “Action Espionage” game provides it with just enough franchise energy that it’s not as risky as betting on a completely original idea. Physint is a much safer bet than Death Stranding ever was (even if connoisseurs know that the gulf between Death Stranding and MGS 5 is about as wide as a pencil).
In this way, Physint potentially could resemble the recently released The Blood of Dawnwalker, an RPG developed by The Witcher 3 developers which plays a lot like The Witcher 3, but features an innovative time pressure system that puts a new spin on choice and consequence. It sold over a million copies in just two days. In parallel, we saw Capcom’s Onimusha: Way of the Sword – a game that similarly blended a familiar base with fresh new ideas – also sell a million copies in 24 hours. It’s clear that people are hungry for something new, but that it’s easier to secure a sale if there’s some kind of connection to a prior experience. Physint could have been that for PlayStation. Now, it’s the project that could help define Xbox’s Project Helix generation.
It’s hard to see a good reason to buy a PlayStation 6, because it’s hard to see what PlayStation even means anymore. “
Of course, a million copies in a day or two could well be considered small fry by PlayStation. It’s never been more apparent that money is the driving force behind Sony’s gaming division, and Kojima’s recent financial results could have poisoned the well. Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese consultancy firm Kantan Games, recently said that Sony’s choice to pull out of its deal with Kojima Productions may well be due to the “steep” sales drop-off between Death Stranding and its 2025 sequel. Recent figures from Alinea Analytics suggest Death Stranding 2 has sold just 2.5 million copies – an understandable decline, considering a sequel to a divisive game about delivering packages across dangerous terrain was naturally going to be niche at best, but not the ideal outcome for a project that cost millions and took half a decade to make. Physint’s budget would likely eclipse Death Stranding 2’s, considering Kojima’s estimate in 2025 was that the game was still 5-6 years from completion, and its promised ambition no doubt demands increased investment. It’s the kind of situation that repels the spreadsheet suits at a corporation like Sony.
But the big picture question remains: if Kojima returning to the espionage genre that helped define PlayStation in the first place isn’t the correct move, then what is? If Sony doesn’t want to invest in arguably one of the most obvious solutions to push its signature single-player games forward and break its creative stalemate, then what will define the PlayStation 6? Sony’s own actions would suggest live-service – the company has continually attempted to break into the market and establish its own never-ending multiplayer game that can print money for a decade. And yet, despite millions invested, it has almost nothing to show for it. . . . . No one’s playing Marathon, and even Sony’s one live-service victory, Helldivers 2, can’t command the attention it once did. It’s hard to see a good reason to buy a PlayStation 6, because it’s hard to see what PlayStation even means anymore. Sony, of course, is about to bathe in what will surely be the biggest river of money in its lifetime thanks to Grand Theft Auto 6. Its exclusive marketing deal with Rockstar has done a phenomenal job of making it appear that GTA 6 is a PS5 exclusive to the casual eye, and so the biggest game of all time will no doubt bankroll PlayStation into the future. But GTA 6 only reinforces the question of PlayStation’s identity; right now, GTA's next online iteration is merely an assumption, and so the untold millions of copies sold on November 19 will have been bought to access a single-player video game. The constant survival of solo play despite decades of naysayers claiming multiplayer would wipe it out is something that can’t be ignored, and has there ever been a better home for single-player adventures than PlayStation? It’s an identity Sony would be foolish to squander.
Physint wasn’t necessarily the answer to PlayStation’s woes. Perhaps, if recent reports regarding Kojima’s approach to budget and deadlines are to be believed, it would only have caused more problems. But the question of PlayStation’s identity still needs an answer, and so, as Kojima departs for Xbox and Sony bosses continue to chase the live-service dragon, there’s never been more pressure on Naughty Dog. It feels like Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has to be an Uncharted-like revolution that propels PlayStation single-player into a brave new future. Because if it relies on lavish cutscenes, approachable combat with a light sprinkling of RPG skills, sneaking through waist-high grass to perform simple stealth takedowns, and a rage meter that triggers an ultimate ability, it’s game over. 
Executive Editor of FeaturesMatt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.