Kojima Shares PHYSINT Status: No Engine Chosen Yet, Small Team at Work

Hideo Kojima has shared where PHYSINT — Kojima Productions’ new spy action game, now published by Xbox — stands. The project is still in an early experimental stage: full-scale production has not begun, and the developers have not even picked a final engine yet.

According to Kojima, he is still personally working out the world, story, gameplay mechanics, visual style and design. The studio is already working on 3D models, casting and actor scanning, while experimenting with technologies such as enemy behavior and AI.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Kojima clarified that the script concept and story are already written and storyboards exist, but the project’s technical foundation is still being figured out. The team is trying different engines and has not settled on one yet.

After the Sony split, the PHYSINT team was cut down

PHYSINT was originally in development with PlayStation’s support, but in the summer of 2026 Sony stopped funding the project. Kojima said the decision caught the studio by surprise and forced it to urgently look for a new partner.

Production, however, never stopped completely. Most of the team was temporarily moved to the horror game OD, while a small group kept working on key elements of PHYSINT.

Xbox later became the project’s publisher. Microsoft officially announced the partnership in September and said the collaboration with Kojima Productions would extend beyond games to film and television as well.

Bill Skarsgård will play the lead role in PHYSINT. Kojima Productions has already done costume fittings, scanning and test shoots with him. The cast also includes Charlie Fraser, Don Lee and Minami Hamabe. The studio confirmed that Skarsgård will be the game’s central character.

PHYSINT🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/K0JpOPSG2T

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 17, 2026

Kojima wants to make a PHYSINT movie someday

Kojima also said he would like to turn PHYSINT into a bigger media franchise over time and make a full-length live-action film.

But the adaptation is not in production yet. It is simply the author’s intention for the future. Kojima explained that modern digital technology makes it possible to reuse some assets between games and film, so he would like to shorten the usual multi-year gap between a game’s release and its adaptation.

At the same time, the developer added separately that PHYSINT will probably come out before the film.

Uncertainty also remains around platforms. Asked about a possible PlayStation release, Kojima said he does not know the final decision and that the matter now depends on Xbox. So PHYSINT cannot yet be considered a confirmed Xbox exclusive.

The project still has no release date. Judging by its current state — a small team, ongoing technology experiments and no chosen engine — PHYSINT remains one of Kojima Productions’ earliest projects.