Sarnoski was announced as the project’s director back in April 2025, and he has likely been busy with pre-production work in the meantime. The fact that location scouting is in full swing indicates that principal photography is slated to start very soon, which typically takes up the bulk of a movie’s production time. Sarnoski is known for his work on 2021’s Pig and 2025’s The Death of Robin Hood.

The Death Stranding movie is going to tell an entirely original story. Series creator Hideo Kojima and Sarnoski revealed this back in September 2025 during a livestream celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of Kojima Productions.

“I think, with this project, we really want to capture the soul of the game, capture the themes of the game, but tell a story you haven’t seen in that world and explore characters you haven’t seen before, and find all of that scope and all of those incredible real locations, but also find all of those nuanced characters and just do justice to this on a macro and micro scale,” said Sarnoski.

The director also spoke about how the team needed to find the right balance of telling an original story while still making sure that it takes place in the same universe as the games. With the film, Sarnoski wants to introduce the haunting and beautiful world of Death Stranding to an entirely new audience.

“We’re trying to find another story that you’ve never seen in this same universe that is both accessible to people that have never played these games before but will also give something to people that know the games really well. I think finding that balance and finding a way to tell a human story in this world that captures everything that we love about it, as well as being able to stand on its own two feet, is really the goal.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the film adaptation’s story will be simple and by-the-books, however. Kojima had said in April 2025 that it is going to be “an unbelievable and strange film.” He also called Sarnoski smart and a nice person to work with, and noted that the director is familiar with Kojima’s work since he played the original Metal Gear Solid as well as Death Stranding.

While the casting for the Death Stranding movie hasn’t yet been revealed, Norman Reedus, who plays Sam Porter in the games, has previously expressed interest in once more taking on the role for the adaptation.

In the meantime, take a look at our review of the latest entry in the franchise – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

“As a creator, I have mixed feelings about this technology. AI is good at bringing old photographs to life or adding color to them, right? I think we might stop doing remakes one day. People still restore old films in 4K by hand, for instance. AI could do that easily.”

He spoke about some of the smaller details that he decided during the development of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and how generative AI technology can lose much of the artist’s intent when reinterpreting these scenes by, for example, changing the lighting.

“As the person who made the original, I wouldn’t want someone changing it too much. There was a reason I chose a particular lighting setup. It would be different if AI understood those intentions.”

On the subject of generative AI being able to change things in games without too much input or handholding, Kojima said, “I wouldn’t like that. Unless I was controlling the AI in my own work, that may be different. I don’t know, though.” Ultimately, he isn’t quite sure whether technologies like DLSS 5 will play a major role in game development at Kojima Productions going forward.

However, he does accept that “this will probably become standard” in the industry. “Maybe AI will eventually do all that automatically,” he said on the subject of using the technology to replace engineers and production teams across various disciplines. “In a hundred years, the resolution may be even higher. But I don’t much like the idea.”

Over the years, Kojima has had plenty to say on the subject of AI taking over the world through a number of his games, with the two most noteworthy examples being Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Both titles involve an enigmatic group of sentient AIs that have been secretly controlling various aspects of the world, from MGS2’s S3 Plan to the Sons of Patriot system in MGS4. Whether we will see these themes pop up again in Kojima Productions’ next espionage title, Physint, remains to be seen.

As for DLSS 5, the technology officially made its debut with the release of NBA 2K27 last month. The technology has seen plenty of criticism since it was first unveiled earlier this year, as the showcase presentation revealed that it would bring about several changes to how various characters looked. One of the big examples of this was how it could change the appearance of Resident Evil Requiem protagonist Grace Ashcroft.

In response to this criticism, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that he “doesn’t love AI slop” and that DLSS 5 will be different from typical AI-generated images.

According to the man himself on the latest KOJI10 radio episode, “This doesn’t mean we haven’t made the game. I want to keep quiet and release it.” But even for those hoping for a few more crumbs of information, Kojima calls it a “mystery” and “unusual for me.”

“I normally put out teaser after teaser. This time I don’t want to reveal much.”

This is all well and good, but what about development progress? The SAG-AFTRA strike caused a pretty significant delay to filming until last year. However, he revealed that “We’ve been shooting since June and will continue through the end of the year.” And while the shoot is “going well,” with OD being developed alongside the process, Kojima revealed that “We’d been using stand-ins until now. For the temporary version,” and replacing these with the full game is taking “a lot of work.”

Regardless, this may be a sign that we’ll hear more about OD, however minimal, in 2027. Though first announced in 2023, Kojima notes it was a concept since the first Death Stranding. It also features a system that will let you keep going, even if it feels too scary, however vague that may sound.

One thing is for sure: Xbox is likely very happy since it’s publishing not one but two major projects from Kojima Productions, with Sony recently dropping Physint. And while rumors previously claimed an absurd budget, it’s apparently nowhere near that. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma even said it’s “substantially below” the cost of making a “premium” title.

While the Metal Gear influence is plainly obvious, Kojima said that it’s “about spies, but I want plenty of new ideas and a different kind of spy action.”

He also revealed how he met Bill Skarsgård, who plays the protagonist’s role, and that the latter was a “huge fan”, “going all the way back to Metal Gear.” “I pitched him the game, and he agreed to do it. It all came together.”

For now, Kojima Productions has finished scanning him, with the director noting that, “We have to scan actors early, because processing the data takes a long time.” Filming will start next year, but he noted how Skarsgård, a method actor, is “so eager he doesn’t want to wait. He keeps asking me for the script.

“I have the plot ready. But he wants to know the lines and how his character speaks. He asks me to write it, but I’m like, ‘Hold on!’ He wants to start preparing now. That’s how deeply he gets into a role.”

Regarding the poster with actor Charlee Fraser, he said their chemistry is “very important.” “We tested their on-screen chemistry and did a camera test. We scanned them in full makeup. Their clothes were just for reference.

“These aren’t the final costumes. We captured how fabric wrinkles and catches light. We’ll change the designs.” This is all for a “texture reference.” “How a garment folds or how a belt creases. The final version could look completely different. So heads up, those are not their costumes.”

Perhaps the most endearing part is Kojima saying that Physint is a project for his 40th anniversary working in the video games industry. That importance certainly underscores why he’s pushing hard to make it, despite the deal with Xbox being “substantially below” that of developing a premium title, per Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.

Physint was announced in January 2024 and marks the first action-espionage title that Kojima has worked on since Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (such elements in Death Stranding notwithstanding). He revealed several of the cast members, including Fraser, Ma Dong-seok, and Minami Hamabe, in September 2025. A release date has yet to be announced, and while on good terms with Sony after their split, it’s unconfirmed whether it will launch on PlayStation.

Interestingly, Sharma also confirmed that the agreement between Xbox and Kojima Productions for Physint includes film and TV rights.

Sharma’s statement essentially confirms a report from earlier this week that indicated that the deal was worth “a fraction” of the rumored $400 million budget for Physint. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier took to the ResetEra forums to talk about how, while he was “hesitant to get into exact numbers without seeing documentation or corroborating them with multiple firsthand sources”, “Someone at Xbox with firsthand knowledge of the deal told me they signed Physint for significantly less than this.”

Schreier’s report was echoed by Jez Corden of Windows Central, who noted that “first-hand sources” have told him about how Xbox’s deal to publish Physint ends up with the company paying “far lower than” the $400 million figure.

A report from earlier this month had indicated that Physint was shaping up to be “well over budget” and that its release was still quite some time away, leading to Sony dropping its agreement to publish it. The project had seemingly also missed deadlines. This, combined with the fact that the Death Stranding games not being commercial juggernauts, led to PlayStation reassessing what would have been “hundreds of millions” of dollars in investments on the project.

In a follow-up report, Schreier said that the publishing deal between Kojima Productions and Sony was dropped after “several months of negotiations” between the two companies. Responding to Kojima’s own statement about being surprised by the event, Schreier noted that the deal’s cancelation “wasn’t exactly out of nowhere.”

“I saw the statement from Kojima Productions today — it doesn’t dispute any of our reporting, so I don’t have much to add there. But I will add that (as I said a couple of weeks ago), the Physint cancellation came after several months of negotiations between KoPro and Sony. Wasn’t exactly out of nowhere.”

In the meantime, Kojima has continued to talk about Physint as development on the title continues. In a recent interview, he said that he didn’t expect Sony to drop the agreement since Physint “is the biggest selling title I could possibly create”, and noted that Sony’s decision left him “shocked and surprised”.

Kojima also hasn’t confirmed whether Physint will make it to the PS5 when it finally comes out following the studio’s deal with Sony falling through. He did, however, speak about how Kojima Productions is going to work with Xbox’s various teams to get “a lot of technological support”. He hasn’t yet revealed whether the title will continue to be developed with Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine or if the studio will move to another game engine.

But when you think of a big budget, does $400 million come to mind? That was the figure that Chris Dring of The Game Business originally claimed, but there’s since been some pushback. On ResetEra, Schreier said he was “hesitant to get into exact numbers without seeing documentation or corroborating them with multiple firsthand sources, as always.” However, even with all the numbers flying around, he claimed, “Someone at Xbox with firsthand knowledge of the deal told me that they signed Physint for significantly less than this.”

Windows Central’s Jez Corden echoed this sentiment, noting that “first-hand sources with direct knowledge of the contracts that the figure for Physint is far lower than what is being reported here. It has been suggested to me that the ‘$400 million’ figure is potentially what Sony and PlayStation might’ve been on the hook for until they cancelled the deal.”

By comparison, the current figure for Xbox and Kojima Productions is reportedly a “fraction” of that, and that along with movie and TV licenses for the tactical espionage title, the deal seemingly included “enhanced terms” for horror title OD. What those could be remains unknown, but it’s certainly not surprising given how strongly the relationship between both companies has developed.

For now, neither Physint nor OD have a release date, and Kojima isn’t even sure whether the former will launch on PlayStation or continue using Guerrilla’s proprietary Decima Engine. However, the studio insists that its relationship with the publisher remains strong. Never say never.

Noting that work on Physint never really stopped and that he is still working on concepts and casting, Kojima also said that he is still in the experimentation phase for things like “the new technology, like enemy AI and stuff”. Since there is still quite a bit of work to do, he said that “It’s not like we’re ready to go, or like it’s a big team already. It’s more like a very small team that remained for the crucial parts and all the others moved to OD.”

As for whether Physint was originally being developed with Guerrilla Games’ Decima Engine and if these plans changed following Sony’s announcement, Kojima reiterated that “I haven’t really decided yet. I’m still experimenting.”

“After we decided to team up with Xbox, they said they will give us a lot of technological support. When I went to visit them during the Don Mattrick days, they had so many labs and everything, and they were experimenting on so many things, like state-of-the-art, new, really new, cutting-edge technology. I was really surprised. I was thinking, ‘There are so many Doc Browns from Back to the Future here!’ So, I want to use all this new technology. Anything that I can use, I want to use, and I’m looking forward to teaming up with Xbox, but I really haven’t decided about the engine.”

When asked whether Physint will follow the lead of many other first-party Xbox games that typically get multiplatform releases, Kojima said that it will likely come down to the publisher’s decision. “In previous updates from Xbox, I thought that they have this kind of stance where they want to deliver to as many gamers as possible, no matter what the platform is. I think all of that will be announced at a later time. I’m not sure yet, and I can’t really say.”

He also spoke about his larger ambitions for Physint. Noting that he is still determined to finish the project, Kojima also spoke about potentially adapting it into a live-action movie. This plan might even go as far as having a shorter timeline between a game’s release and its film adaptation.

“These days of digital production, we could actually kind of use the same assets for a movie and a game. But anyway, this has been reset to a new partner. But that’s the feeling I have. I want to kind of expand the IP. Of course, I’ll release the game first probably! I’ve been doing all the casting for the game, and it’s progressing well.”

In another recent interview, Kojima also spoke about how he was shocked by Sony’s decision to drop its publishing deal for Physint since it was “the biggest selling title I could possibly create” and that “I didn’t think Physint would be on the list of being canceled.”

“I didn’t have any anger or sadness,” he said, before going on to discuss how Kojima Productions as a whole would have been in trouble if it weren’t able to procure more funding. A big reason behind Kojima being shocked about Sony’s decision came down to the fact that he didn’t consider Physint to be a risky project in the vein of the Death Stranding games. “This is the biggest selling title I could possibly create. I didn’t think Physint would be on the list of being canceled.”

In another interview with IGN, Kojima also discussed his relationship with Sony that went all the way back to the original PlayStation, with him having previously worked with people like Ken Kutaragi and Kazuo Hirai. This relationship also meant that, even though many of those people don’t work at Sony anymore, Kojima still has a soft spot for the company.

“Nothing could’ve prepared me for their decision to step away from the project. So, I thought, ‘What am I going to do from tomorrow?’ But from my side, I love Sony. And I don’t have any bad feelings against them because I know that it’s a tough time in the game industry.

“I’ve been working with them for like 30 years… Mr. Ken Kutaragi, Mr. Hirai, I was close with them. But it’s not like that recently. I realized that, okay, this is the reality. It’s the 10th anniversary of my studio. My studio might collapse, right?”

Kojima Productions got the news from Sony that the latter wouldn’t be publishing Physint back in June. In the fallout of this, the game maker spoke about how he simply decided to flesh out the project’s concept more. The decision was also made to keep the news a secret between the three of them – Kojima, Hirano, and Saito – while a new deal could be signed with another company.

“I couldn’t tell my staff until we decided on a new partner. But three days after the meeting with SIE, I called the leaders of the Physint team, and I explained the situation to them. But I also said, ‘I’m going to go find a new partner, so don’t worry.’ But at the same time, because of the cancellation of the project, I had to make the Physint team smaller and move some people to the OD team.”

Ultimately, Kojima Productions ended up signing a new deal with Xbox to publish Physint, further expanding on the relationship the two companies had already forged thanks to their deal for the upcoming horror project OD. In the meantime, Kojima also revealed more details about development progress on both projects through a new video.

“I saw the statement from Kojima Productions today — it doesn’t dispute any of our reporting, so I don’t have much to add there. But I will add that (as I said a couple of weeks ago), the Physint cancellation came after several months of negotiations between KoPro and Sony. Wasn’t exactly out of nowhere.”

In a follow-up post, Schreier also said that his original report was based on conversations he had with “multiple people across Sony, Xbox, and Kojima Productions.”

In his original report, Schreier had said that the deal between Sony and Kojima Productions to publish Physint was canceled due to the studio having missed important deadlines, as well as the fact that the project would require additional investments of potentially “hundreds of millions” more.

For its part, Kojima Productions has said that the report didn’t arise from any “official or on-the-record source,” and that fans of the studio’s work should take the report with “a dose of scepticism”.

“You may have seen a recent article that mentions Kojima Productions, speculating on the reasons for the change in publishing partners for Physint. Normally, we would not comment on unsubstantiated speculation on the internet, but these aspersions around our relationship with PlayStation, the commercial performance of the Death Stranding franchise, and the broader production planning and investment for Physint have reached beyond the studio and have touched our fans, our creative partners, and colleagues we have worked alongside for three decades.”

Further in its statement, Kojima Productions went on to note that it is in “a healthy, profitable state”, and that development on Physint would be continuing as part of a new deal the studio had signed with Xbox. Along with this, the developer also said that “our relationship with PlayStation remains strong.”

Sony’s announcement that it is dropping its deal with Kojima Productions came about earlier this month, with the company calling it a “difficult decision”. While studio head Hideo Kojima had said that he was looking for a new publishing partner for Physint, the company eventually signed a deal with Xbox.

“This expands our relationship with Xbox beyond OD. As we move forward with the development of PHYSINT, we remain committed to redefining the action-espionage genre for players around the world,” said Kojima.

More recently, Kojima also revealed through a new video update that the main protagonist in Physint will be played by Bill Skarsgård. Other confirmed cast members for the espionage game include Charlee Fraser, Don Lee, and Minami Hamabe, and more cast members are slated to be revealed as development continues. The same video also provided an update on horror project OD, which Kojima said was progressing at a steady pace.

“You may have seen a recent article that mentions Kojima Productions, speculating on the reasons for the change in publishing partners for Physint. ​Normally, we would not comment on unsubstantiated speculation on the internet, but these aspersions around our relationship with PlayStation, the commercial performance of the Death Stranding franchise, and the broader production planning and investment for Physint have reached beyond the studio and have touched our fans, our creative partners, and colleagues we have worked alongside for three decades.”

Of course, the studio reinforced that the overall situation was “serious” and had “a range of potentially significant implications.” “While we recognise that the article may have caused alarm, we want to reassure you all, for the record, that the studio is in a healthy, profitable state, development for Physint continues to move forward with Xbox, and our relationship with PlayStation remains strong.​”

Naturally, the first response anyone would have is that the studio didn’t outright deny the report. The reasons noted for PlayStation reportedly ending its collaboration include missed deadlines, concerns about a high budget, lack of exclusivity (since Kojima owns the IP), and lackluster sales for Death Stranding 1 and 2.

Since its announcement of collaborating with Xbox – which it’s also working on OD with – Kojima Productions revealed during Tokyo Game Show that Bill Skarsgård will be playing the lead role in Physint. He joins Charlee Fraser, Ma Dong-seok, and Minami Hamabe, who were revealed as part of the cast last year. The announcement also accompanied a new tagline – “The Next Cold War Begins” – hinting at the premise for the tactical-espionage action title.

Of course, neither game has a release date, so we’ll still need to wait (though OD seems to be further along). At the very least, the studio is forging ahead, at least for now. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.