We have all heard by now that Sony has decidedly given up on Hideo Kojima’s upcoming action espionage game, PHYSINT which doesn’t make any sense at all. Sony has been increasingly making bad decisions and the latest one proves how they’ve lost their way, confusing us of their vision in the process.
Sony has been making a string of rash decisions, most recently announcing the end of their physical disc support which has upset not only fans but also major game developers and publishers who were blindsided by this sudden development.
If we were to count every big slip up they’ve made so far, we’d be here a while, but to just name a few:
- They stopped putting their exclusive games on PC which was earning them a lot of money.
- Under their watch, Bungie has wasted money and time on a failing Marathon rather than revitalising their big money-maker Destiny with a new sequel.
- Announced the death of Physical Media.
- Lost a lot of money on Concord which barely lasted two weeks.
- Extortionate price hikes on their PlayStation 5 consoles.
- Forcing players to link a PlayStation account to keep playing their PC games like Helldivers 2.
- Removing over 500 digital movie titles from people’s libraries.
- Insisting aggressively that players don’t own their digital products.
- Cancelled The Last of Us Factions deep into development after listening to Bungie.
Their biggest flaw, however, is their live-service obsession which they are insisting on their developers, especially those that are known for their iconic single-player titles.
According to Jason Schreier, Hunters Gathering got overwhelmingly negative feedback in their playtests which has forced them to pivot it into a traditional co-op game.
Bluepoint is the most tragic example of this who were closed after Sony forced them to work on a live-service God of War spinoff featuring Atreus. Bluepoint pitched various games, including a Bloodborne remake that fans have been yearning for, and even offered to revive long dormant IPs such as Jak and Daxter or Resistance. However, as you are now well aware, Sony hates making money, so they of course rejected them all and shut down the studio entirely.
Recently they have been digging deeper into their mistakes with Guerrilla Games who were also compelled to make a live-service game based on their best selling Horizon franchise. According to Jason Schreier, Hunters Gathering got overwhelmingly negative feedback in their playtests which has forced them to pivot it into a traditional co-op game.
Then, there’s Bend whose open world zombie action game Days Gone went on to sell over 9 million copies, but was still not profitable enough according to Sony, leading to a rejected pitch for a sequel. It currently is very well rated on Steam and on the PlayStation store with a large fan following.
And as if they weren’t satisfied with their losses, they go ahead and cancel Kojima’s potential answer to Metal Gear Solid. Some people equate this to Death Stranding not selling enough, citing the 5 million copies sold for Death Stranding and over 2 million for its sequel as a low figure, however, that argument doesn’t make sense to us.
Death Stranding was an almost niche experiment of genres, something that might not have had a lot of mainstream appeal.
Firstly, the numbers aren’t that low with Death Stranding having surpassed more than 20 million total players in early 2025 potentially due to its inclusion in Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, as well as the Epic Store giveaway. Secondly, if for argument’s sake we do believe these are really low, they don’t really apply to something like PHYSINT.
Death Stranding was an almost niche experiment of genres, something that might not have had a lot of mainstream appeal. PHYSINT, however, is going to be an action game, a genre that plays in a different field altogether. If Sony had been sensible, PHYSINT could have been their big PlayStation 6 title and would have had mainstream appeal both due to the genre and presumably the high profile actors Kojima will end up casting.
Xbox was only too eager to seize the opportunity slipping through Sony’s fingers, announcing that it will gladly partner with Kojima instead. There is some irony to this, since Xbox was once the platform we associated with multiplayer experiences, yet with upcoming titles such as Clockwork Revolution, Gears of War: E-Day and Fable, it now appears to be the one supporting the kind of cinematic single-player games that once defined PlayStation.
While the PS2 was the best-selling console of all time, Sony’s arrogance and critical hardware mistakes with the PS3 allowed the Xbox 360 to capture millions of PlayStation fans.
In our opinion, Sony has become overconfident with their victory during the PS4/Xbox One era which saw people flock to Sony’s console. We think they should be really cautious entering the next gen, as Xbox seems to be pulling all the right moves from giving players access to physical-to-digital programme and potentially supporting discs on their next console, Helix. Not to mention, their quick resume and play anywhere features are unrivalled, giving you access to your game across PC and Xbox.
While the PS2 was the best-selling console of all time, Sony’s arrogance and critical hardware mistakes with the PS3 allowed the Xbox 360 to capture millions of PlayStation fans. Sony should not get too comfortable with their userbase, as shifts like this can happen again.
This isn’t to say Xbox is a stellar example either. Microsoft has made its own major missteps recently, from introducing monthly limits to Xbox Cloud Gaming, to restructuring that has left studios such as Double Fine and Compulsion Games facing uncertain futures, alongside thousands of layoffs across its gaming business.
Ideally, Sony should abandon its live-service delusions and instead place its faith in the studios that have spent decades mastering the art of making single-player games. Of course, there is still room for one or two studios to experiment with live-service experiences but it shouldn’t be done at the expense of other studios. Instead, most studios should look to revitalise beloved franchises and create brand new worlds of their own, especially when major releases have become so few and far between.
During their peak years of the PlayStation 4 era, their studios were consistently releasing 3 to 5 major exclusives every year. For example in 2015 we got Bloodborne, Until Dawn and The Order: 1886, and 2018 saw God of War, Spider-Man and Shadow of the Colossus Remake. On the other hand 2023 – 2025 barely had one or two.
In a perfect world we would have had more entries for both beloved franchises like inFamous, Resistance, Uncharted, and Jak and Daxter, alongside bold new IPs. If Sony wants to make money, they should be releasing multiple games a year, rather than hedging so much on the loss leader that live-service games have become.
At this point, Sony’s live-service push is no longer an ambitious gamble, but instead a refusal to learn. The executives who approve these projects will still get their million dollar bonuses, while the developers forced to carry out this vision will be the ones who pay when it fails with cancelled games, closed studios and hundreds of people losing their livelihoods. We doubt Sony will strike live-service gold at this point, so they need to stop gambling with the people who make their games and remember what made PlayStation successful in the first place.
