Hideo Kojima reveals a life-threatening illness motivated him to make Physint

PlayStation’s previous State of Play featured an…interesting trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. However, the headline coming out of the event was Kojima’s announcement of a return to the genre he arguably created: action espionage.

Not much is known about the upcoming Physint at this point. Kojima refers to it in the State of Play as the culmination of his 40-year gaming career. Obviously, longtime fans of Metal Gear Solid are eager to learn more.

Kojima has now offered further details on the upcoming game, including the mystery illness that motivated him.

Hideo Kojima was inspired to make Physint after a deadly illness

During a HideoTube presentation on the Kojima Productions YouTube channel, Kojima revealed that while he had been asked about making a new action-espionage game for years, it wasn’t until he had a near-death experience that he decided to return to the genre.

“I fell ill in 2020,” he explains. “It was also during the pandemic, so I was sick and isolated during all of it. I even had surgery. And I thought ‘I can’t anymore.’ I was at my lowest and felt like I couldn’t go back to making games. I wrote a will, too.”

Kojima’s illness had previously gone unreported, so it’s not entirely clear what happened. Thankfully, though, he bounced back and came back with the decision that making a new Metal Gear successor wouldn’t be a bad idea.

“In that moment, I realized that people die. But I turned 60 last year. I’ll turn 70 in ten years. I hope to never retire. Having said that, if the users desire it so much, I thought I should change my priorities a bit. I still want to do new things, but I decided to make an action-espionage game.”

Kojima doesn’t reveal any truly juicy details about Physint during the show but does affirm it will be a game, though he also says, “If your mother walks in and sees you playing this game, she’ll think you’re watching a movie.”

Kojima’s next project appears to be Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which currently has a 2025 release window. Kojima Productions is also working on OD for Xbox Game Studios alongside director Jordan Peele. Neither OD nor Physint have release dates as of this writing.