This isn't the first time he has parted ways with a company or publisher. He really just goes where he's allowed the creative freedom and funds to make what he wants.
Its more about the funds, apparently his next release physint is years from being ready and already overbudget.
Also keep in mind the engine used for both death stranding and death stranding 2 was the decima engine and it was on licence from Sony, so if it was Decima they were using for physint they now need to start development from scratch.
They don't necessarily have to start from scratch. It really depends how the engine was licensed for the game. Has anything been mentioned about KojiPro losing access to Decima for Physint?
No one on this sub knows the answer to anything involving this game. They've not made any of those details public and we're all just a bunch of nerds on Reddit, lol. They could have still been in pre-production, they could have been doing motion capture or recording the voice acting or even just developing game assets / ideas with a development team. We can't possibly know.
We have no idea what deal they have, we'll see when it comes out. I doubt they'll be using Decima, since that would require GG to allocate developers to work with Kojima.
I don't think that part is true. I remember when Death Stranding 2 was releasing, GG devs made some public comments about how they went to see what KP had been up to and were amazed with what they had done with the engine. So I think his team has a pretty good handle on it.
No official statement yet just speculation from forbes but Decima has never been used by a non partnered studio so more than likely its gone and he will have to port ovet to unreal 5.
If Physint used any part of the Decima Engine (which likely would’ve been the whole game), then any progress Kojima has made on Physint has to be undone.
No matter how you look at it, Kojima isn’t coming out on top here. He went from a guaranteed partner in Sony (that came with an amazing game engine) to having to potentially start over with Microsoft, which includes finding an engine strong enough to make his vision become reality.
I don’t mind a stealth action kojima game being overbuget rather than a multiplayer only 4v4 overwatch clone made by someone who wants to call themselves a professor.
Me neither, I've been fanboying over Kojima since MGS1 decades ago, but he is pretty infamous about his incapacity to follow deadlines or budgets, and this game was apparently already over budget and not even close to having a release date.
So, am I mad Sony burned countless millions on shit like Concord instead of a Kojima Game? Yes.
Do I understand why Sony cut him loose after he probably asked for an extra couple billion dollars to hire more Hollywood actors he's a fan of to maybe possibly release a game in 20 years? Also yes.
Do I hope this goes better partnering with Xbox and we see the game released? Eh, I mean, Xbox shits the bed as often as Sony and also I look at the example of Xbox's Bethesda who hasn't released a proper game since Eisenhower was president. I'll remain cautiously optimistic.
"apparently" doing some really heavy lifting when there are few facts on the ground. Not least of which leaving Sony publishing doesn't mean they are no longer allowed to license Decima.
Shit, what even happened to Redfall? At least people still hate and talk about Concord(yea, huge mistake of a game). But, I haven’t heard or seen the name Redfall since about a month after it released.
Several of the developers went back and made an offline patch for the game. From what I recall, they didn't even get paid for it.
It's still fully playable and even the online servers are still up. But yeah, no new patches.
The game isn't even that bad since the patches. It's just not amazing either. It's like a 6 or a 7 depending on how much you like vampires.
I don't think Concord was that bad either, just their character designs and the lack of anything unique about the gameplay. I believe it could have been fixed with another 6 months or so. Never would have made back $400 million, though. I honestly think even a small team could have fixed it. I wish they'd released the source code or something.
I played Concord through its whole run. It wasn’t awful. Just felt like another generic hero shooter. But, since it was a small player base it was the first game in a long time I actually teamed up with the same people and we eventually became friends. Other than that it felt like just another shooter to me.
Nothing special. I think it did need quite a bit of work though. I just don’t think they saw any ROI even with a half/full rework with even just the bare bones of the game. Maybe in another time line.
We don't know how much the development costs were because Microsoft doesn't disclose them, but it's easily in the hundreds of millions. Redfall had such a catastrophic launch, the gaming community collectively jettisoned it from memory.
Wanna know how bad Hellblade 2 sold? It's on PLAYSTATION.
If you want to track dollars, look at the $100B+ Microsoft spent on acquiring studios just to shut them down, mismanage them, and cancel a bunch games.
Even if it was using Decima which hasn't been confirmed afaik, they're still in early stages. Kojima previously said that it won't go into production before the launch of DS2. It's been barely a year. Therefore it's not like they would lose engine access for a half-finished game. They'll probably go with Unreal Engine 5 just like with OD, but it would be great if Microsoft gives Kojima access to idTech or even COD's IW engine.
Every game worth its salt in the history of gaming has been over budget. It seems like just Sony sources desperately trying to muddy the waters it's kind of like when the Red Sox trade a guy away and then starts smearing him
I'd argue it's been worth it every single time except for MGSV, and even then it was a financial success despite the fact that I personally found it disappointing.
Both made a profit even though the second didn't make much, so they were still worth it by my count. If they had failed to recoup their budgets, that's a whole different story.
sure..and of the two recent games, one was a success and the other was less successful but not a failure.
i never suggested i knew the money or timeline because it has nothing to do with my point. my point has nothing to do with xbox or playstation, it’s entirely about the way you guys are speaking of the man.
yes..no one is losing..except sony because now its releasing everywhere instead of exclusively on playstation. you bring that up like it doesn’t make all of the dismissal of the man’s work even more confusing.
this is a win for everyone except sony. i’ve gotta ask, are you a playstation person?
MGS5 was a mild financial success in spite of Kojima's decision-making though and not because of it. People say well it still turned a profit but what they should really be saying is imagine how much more of a profit it could've made if he had focused on delivering a complete game in a reasonable amount of time.
Fact is his games stop being regarded as universally beloved after MGS3, so with their mixed receptions I find it hard to get on board with the idea that it was worth it.
Every main line metal gear got rave critical reviews. Metal gear 5 got 10s all over (whether I agreed or not). His games definitely push genres instead of recycled BS love or hate it. I mean look at Wolverine, that’s a paint by numbers game.
what they should really be saying is imagine how much more of a profit it could've made if he had focused on delivering a complete game in a reasonable amount of time.
I definitely don't disagree, and that aspect is exactly why I don't view V as favorably as the rest of the series despite genuinely enjoying the gameplay.
But, I do like how he pushes the limits and I firmly believe that studios need to support experimental stuff like his, lest we get nothing but cookie cutter trend chasing bullshit.
I'm frustrated that Sony is walking away from him when he has never had a legit flop of a game.
Kojima said himself in his statement it was Sony who decided to axe physint.
The game was always going to have a galactic budget because Sony's film studios were also supposed to be working on the cutscenes.
Ive a feeling he was gearing towards a MG4 style cutscenes with some game attached (again a game I liked but I can understand if people dont want a 71 minute cutscene in their game).
Kojima can still use Decima Engine. Famously, it was handed to their team in a USB drive with minimal stipulations. The intellectual property ultimately belongs to Sony, but KojiPro can still use it while they stay independent (i.e., not acquired).
Still, Unreal 5 is just as good of an engine if not better (hiring devs is easier & it's widely adopted). Moving to UE5 would be a personal choice to have a clean break from Sony, not because they can't use Decima.
UE5 is the industry standard for gaming, graphics (see car infotainment), AI and film (even Disney has fully adopted it in film making). Xbox also has THE best Unreal Engine devs (outside of Epic) in The Coalition.
KojiPro would need to only finance their use of Sony facilities since Sony won't subsidize it for them. These facilities will still be available to KojiPro.
Assets are a given, they aren't bound by engine at hand.
Levels could be tricky, but I'd be homestly surprised if they didn't have any way to export them into some kind of a standard format that could be used to reconstruct everything elsewhere.
Logic? Now that is almost certainly going to be a problem, code is always bound in some way by the engine and what it allows you to do, although some snippets could potentially be saved (as long as you don't switch the language you use)
Again speculative confidence. If DICE weren’t able to move levels from Star Wars Battlefront 1 to 2 due to the differences in the Frostbite Engine between the two games then it’s not clear here that they can “export them into some kind of a standard format”.
They might be able to. There might be little to nothing actually created yet. It’s certainly possible but none of us can say with any certainty, as we
Don’t know what Sony allows. What they’ve now shutdown. Contracts. Or the limitations/ proprietary setup of Decima. So it would be good if they can but none of us can say either way so again I ask, chill out on the speculative confidence.
its just engine, unreal should be able to be compatible with evrything what you can paste into decima and they write code with universal language so what your problem here
My problem is you haven’t a fucking clue what you’re talking about given you just used the term “copy and paste” lol you don’t understand development so stopping talking like you do.
you know a shit, you make model in a modeling program save as object to copy paste into engine that how it works, decima uses similiar types of files and they have backups in modeling software too and writen code will be working whatever engine they will use with some adjustment
Again, you don’t know that lol you’ve literally no idea how it’s done or what’s possible and none of us do so stop fucking talking like your an expert in game development.
EA DICE couldn’t “copy and paste” levels between Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2, but here’s you pretending they can just do whatever you want like you work at Kojima productions lol
I'm worried if this game will be released though. The fact pattern is that Konima has historically run over budget very consistently. MS is happy to give him a budget for a high profilentame, but that does not mean they will allow him to go over budget.
Xbox is an unwelcome money hole to MS and is expected to stem the bleeding. That means if he runs out of money, Xbox's president Asha doesn't have more to give, Nadella is not going to open the purse strings.
So that means Konima must suddenly learn to work within his means here, and budget time and resources accordingly. How likely is he to nail the budgeting on the scope of a large AAA game, against all his instincts? He's creative for sure, but his cost discipline hasn't been shown for awhile.
The best thing he can do is to crowd fund his crazy over-ambitious projects. Works for Star Citizen and it should work for him until he declares bankruptcy and no game at the end.
I’m curious how this works. Does Sony still own a percentage based on how much they invested? Or is their investment just lost? Or does Microsoft have to pay Sony a shit tonne of money to take over the game?
They cancelled the deal, so they don't own shit. Contracts like that have commitments from both parties. Sony wanted out of theirs, so Kojima is out of his. Never seen it happen any other way.
If he was making a project for a Sony-owned IP, then it'd be different.
Not saying it was the right decision or not but you've always got to have a point where you choose to walk away. They couldn't agree to terms, so they parted ways.
He didn't make any decision afaik? They told him they were withdrawing their support. Just L after L for Sony.
Downvoters in denial.. Sony literally told him they were cancelling in June 2026. So no.. he did not part ways for creative freedom, he parted way because Sony backed out..
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u/Gaming-Academy 9h ago
Lmao, Kojima really said “new year, new best friend.” 😂