Sony has dropped publication of Hideo Kojima's ambitious spy game, Physint, and analysts suggest one reason may be the sales performance of Death Stranding 2: On the Beaches. Serkan Toto, an analyst at Kantan Games, speculates that Sony may have been alarmed by the noticeable decline in performance between the first and second Death Stranding titles. According to him, Kojima's games bring strong marketing and brand value to the platform, but weak sequel performance may have prompted Sony to reconsider its partnership with the developer. Toto himself noted that this is "not a good sign."
The exact sales figures for Death Stranding 2 have not been officially released. Alinea Analytics estimates them to be around 2.5 million copies. For comparison, the first Death Stranding sold 5 million copies by March 2021. According to analyst data, sales of the sequel slowed down rapidly, and discounts barely managed to turn things around.
This situation is particularly significant due to the costs of Kojima's projects. Alinea estimates that the budget for the first Death Stranding was around $100 million, while the second reached $150–200 million. Meanwhile, Physint is expected to be even larger in scale, and according to Kojima, it is still five to six years away from release.
There is no direct evidence that Sony abandoned Physint specifically due to the sales of Death Stranding 2. However, analysts believe this connection is entirely plausible given PlayStation's increasing caution towards expensive and high-risk projects. Now, Physint will continue development with support from Microsoft.