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

PlayStation’s previous State of Play featured an…interesting trailer f▨or Death Stཧranding 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, longtim🧸e fans of M💜etal Gear Solid are eager to learn more.

Kojima has now offered further details on the upcoming game, including the mystery🍌 illness th꧅at motivated him.

Hideo Kojima was inspired to make Physint after a deadly illness

During a 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.