Gaming · Friday, 18 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

Kojima names Physint's star on Xbox's stage in Tokyo. PlayStation had dropped the game in June.

Xbox's Tokyo Game Show broadcast ended with Hideo Kojima casting Bill Skarsgard in Physint, the spy game PlayStation cancelled in June, and opened the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign.

2.5 million

copies of Death Stranding 2 sold, the Kojima game before Physint

an outside estimate by Alinea Analytics; the analyst Serkan Toto links the drop in sales to Sony leaving [8]

5-6 years

how far Physint was from finished, by Kojima's own guess in 2025

the game still has no release date [8][1]

7 days

of early play on Modern Warfare 4's campaign before its 23 October launch

only for players who pre-order certain editions [2]

The lead story — what happened

Xbox held its own broadcast at the Tokyo Game Show, a big yearly games fair in Japan, on 17 September. [9][1]
It ended with Hideo Kojima, the Japanese designer who made Metal Gear Solid, talking about his two games now published by Xbox, OD and Physint. [1][4]
Kojima named Bill Skarsgard, the actor who played the clown Pennywise in the film It, as the lead of Physint, a spy action game. [3][4]
Physint was announced as a PlayStation game in January 2024. [8] Kojima says PlayStation told his studio in mid-June 2026 that it would cancel the game. [8]
Xbox then agreed to publish Physint instead. [4] A report cited by Eurogamer says Sony left over the budget, the likely profit and the exclusivity terms. [4]
Kojima's last game, Death Stranding 2, has sold about 2.5 million copies, by the estimate of the research firm Alinea Analytics. [8] The analyst Serkan Toto points to that drop in sales from the first Death Stranding. [8]
Physint has no release date. [1] In 2025 Kojima guessed it was still five to six years from being finished. [8]
Kojima said OD, his horror game, is on schedule. [4] Its actors' recording had been paused by the 2025 strike of SAG-AFTRA, the US actors' union. [4]
The show also carried the campaign trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, with the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as a villain and a war in Korea in the story. [2][1]
Modern Warfare 4 goes on sale on 23 October. [2] People who pre-order some editions can play the campaign from 16 October. [2]
Activision, which makes Call of Duty, calls the game the "epic conclusion" of Modern Warfare. [7] IGN says it is unclear whether that ends the story begun in 2019 or the whole series. [7]
Treyarch, another Call of Duty studio, said this week it is ready to make something new after two Black Ops games in a row. [7]
Most of the rest were games from Japanese and Asian studios, such as Persona 4 Revival, Crazy Taxi World Tour and Wo Long 2, due on 4 March 2027. [1]
Several of them, including Wo Long 2 and Persona 4 Revival, will go into Game Pass, Xbox's monthly subscription that gives players a library of games. [1]
Japan has long been a hard place for Xbox to sell, because Sony and Nintendo are Japanese companies with a home advantage. [6] Xbox has still been there for 20 years. [6]

Who is involved

Hideo Kojima

the Japanese designer behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding; he now makes OD and Physint for Xbox
Xbox

Microsoft's games business, led by Asha Sharma; it took over Physint after PlayStation dropped it
PlayStation

Sony's games business; it announced Physint in 2024 and cancelled it in June
Activision

the Call of Duty publisher, owned by Microsoft; it showed Modern Warfare 4's campaign
Bill Skarsgard

a Swedish actor known for playing Pennywise in It; Physint's lead

How it unfolded

Jan 2024 Physint is announced at a PlayStation show [8]
Mid-June 2026 PlayStation tells Kojima's studio it will cancel Physint [8]
Early Sept Xbox takes over as Physint's publisher [4]
17 Sept Kojima names Physint's lead actor on Xbox's Tokyo broadcast [1][3]
23 Oct Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 goes on sale [2]

Where this points

Watch whether Xbox gives Physint a release year; until it does, the only Xbox game here with a date is Modern Warfare 4 on 23 October.

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Old names coming back High↑

Dragon Quest, a Japanese adventure series from 1986, passed 100 million copies sold. [11] Diablo 4's new season brings back Deckard Cain, a character from almost every Diablo game. [16] Nex Playground, a small family console, is reviving old Kinect motion games. [12]

Big games that play alike Building↑

Bruce Straley, who directed The Last of Us, says big-budget games bore him because nobody can risk a new idea. [10] An IGN columnist says Sony's newest games play much like their older versions. [8] Sony dropped Physint partly over its budget, a report says. [4]

Games arriving late Building↑

The Jujutsu Kaisen game from the makers of Vampire Survivors slipped from 2026 to 2027. [18] Dragon Quest 12, first shown in 2021, was started again from scratch. [11] Diablo 4's new season went live more than six hours late. [16]

Games tied to shows on screen Steady→

Overwatch will add outfits from the Netflix anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in 2027. [20] The Jujutsu Kaisen game now lands in the same year as the anime's next season. [18] Physint cast Bill Skarsgard, the actor from the film It, as its lead. [3]

The rest of the day

10 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
Dragon Quest passes 100 million copies

The Dragon Quest series has sold more than 100 million copies in its 40 years, its official account said on 16 September. [11] The first game came out in Japan on 27 May 1986 from Enix, which is now Square Enix. [11] There have been 11 main games, plus spin-offs, novels, manga and cartoons. [11] Dragon Quest 12 was started again from scratch after it hit what its producer called a lot of hurdles, and it now has a new subtitle, Beyond Dreams. [11]

Why it matters — Polygon calls it one of the most influential role-playing series ever made. Its next main game, Dragon Quest 12, still has no release date or even a year. [11]
03
Old Kinect games find a new console

Nex Playground, a small console that uses a camera to follow players' bodies, goes on sale in Germany later this year for 319 euros. [12] It has sold over a million units and is close to a million paying subscribers. [12] Its president Thomas Kang says every major publisher has asked it to look at their old Kinect and Wii motion games. [12] A 2013 Kinect game, Freefall Racers, reached 150,000 families in its first month. [12]

Why it matters — Games that had no machine to run on are earning money again. The console's US price rose from $249 to $299 this year because memory chips cost more, and the company says even that does not cover its costs. [12]
04
Straley calls big-budget games boring

Bruce Straley, the game director behind The Last of Us, told Edge magazine that big-budget games bore him. [10] He said every picture in God of War Laufey is amazing, but what the player does is not exciting. [10] He blamed a lack of room for new ideas in the most expensive games. [10] Straley left Naughty Dog, the Sony studio, in 2017 after Uncharted 4 and a long burnout, and now makes smaller games at his own studio, Wildflower Interactive. [10]

Why it matters — He helped design the style of game that Sony's studios now repeat. An IGN columnist made the same complaint this week, saying Sony's new games play much like their PlayStation 4 versions. [8]
05
Dawnwalker's sequel may drop its clock

The Blood of Dawnwalker came out earlier this month from Rebel Wolves, a Polish studio started by former Witcher 3 developers. [21] Its hero has 30 in-game days to save his family, and time moves only when he finishes a quest or learns a skill. [21] Polygon says the clock stops the game feeling too long, but not every player likes it. [21] Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer the system may not return in later games, saying the studio will not force it where it does not fit. [21]

Why it matters — Polygon says the clock is what sets Dawnwalker apart from The Witcher 3 and other big open-world role-playing games. [21] So the one new idea in a well-reviewed first game is the part most at risk in the sequel. [21]
06
Monster Hunter brings back a fire lion

Capcom, the Japanese maker of Monster Hunter and Resident Evil, showed a longer trailer for Ascendance, the coming expansion to Monster Hunter Wilds, at the Tokyo Game Show. [13] It brings back Teostra, a fire-breathing monster first seen in Monster Hunter 2 in 2006. [13] The expansion adds a Boost Bracer, a new way to attack harder. [13] Many players had complained that Wilds was too easy when it launched. [13]

Why it matters — An expansion is sold to people who already own the game, so it has to answer what they disliked. Eurogamer reads the harder fights as Capcom answering the complaints about difficulty. [13]
07
Moza gets a PlayStation licence

Moza, a maker of steering wheels for racing games, showed its first PlayStation-licensed wheels at the Tokyo Game Show. [14] The range has an entry package, a more powerful one, and a wheel base for people who already own a Moza rim. [14] PlayStation support has to be built into the wheel base itself. [14] From launch the wheels work with Gran Turismo 7, and Moza is now working with its maker, Polyphony Digital. [14]

Why it matters — Until now, Moza's wheels did not work on Sony's consoles, and racing fans had asked for years for a licensed range. [14]
08
PAX Australia lines up playable games

PAX Australia, a fan convention, runs in Melbourne from 9 to 11 October. [15] Sega will bring four games to try, including Total War: Warhammer 40,000 and Alien: Isolation 2. [15] Modern Warfare 4's online mode will be playable before its 23 October launch. [15] Square Enix will let visitors play Final Fantasy 14 on Nintendo's Switch 2, and more than 90 small independent games will be shown. [15]

Why it matters — Shows like this let publishers put unfinished games in front of players weeks before launch. It is the next stop after Tokyo for several of the same games, including Persona 4 Revival. [15][1]
09
Diablo 4's new season opens six hours late

Diablo 4's new season, Hell's Legacy, went live more than six hours late on 15 September because players could not log in. [16] Blizzard said the season was delayed while it fixed the problem, and some features stayed switched off afterwards. [16] The season marks 30 years of Diablo and brings back Deckard Cain and three old villains. [16][17] The same day was Diablo 4's launch on Nintendo's Switch 2. [17]

Why it matters — For people who bought it on Switch 2, the outage was their first sight of the game. [16] A season is the free update meant to bring old players back, and this one began with hours of login errors. [16]
10
The Jujutsu Kaisen game slips to 2027

Poncle, the small studio behind the hit Vampire Survivors, is making a game from the anime Jujutsu Kaisen. [18] It was announced in June for 2026, and a new trailer now says 2027. [18] That is also when the anime's next season is expected. [18] The game will have more than 20 fighters and online matches for up to eight players, where the last one standing wins. [18]

Why it matters — A game based on a cartoon sells best when the cartoon is on screen. The new date puts the two in the same year. [18]
11
Overwatch adds a hero and an anime

Blizzard's team shooter Overwatch added Doctrine, a vampire support hero who both heals and does damage. [19] Players could try him for a weekend from 12 September. [19] Its next season starts on 6 October, and two heroes, Roadhog and Sombra, are being redesigned. [19] Blizzard and CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind Cyberpunk 2077, said Overwatch will get outfits from the Netflix anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in 2027. [20] Edgerunners 2 comes to Netflix on 20 October. [20]

Why it matters — Overwatch is free to play and earns its money from outfits, so a crossover gives fans of a show something to buy. CD Projekt Red is also putting The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 on Blizzard's Battle.net store. [20]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why the costliest games take the fewest chances

A game that takes five years and a huge budget has to sell to millions, so its makers copy what millions already bought.

The twist

The more a game costs to make, the more copies it must sell. That pushes its makers to copy what already sold, so the most expensive games often try the fewest new things.

How it works

A big game now takes five years or more and a very large budget to make
To earn that money back, it must sell to millions of people
The safest guide to what millions will buy is what they bought last time
So the design copies the last hit, and a new idea looks like a risk
New ideas move to smaller teams, whose games cost little enough to survive a flop

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Straley calls big-budget games boring

He says every picture in God of War Laufey is amazing but the playing is not new, because nobody on a game that size has room for a fresh idea.
Kojima names Physint's star

Sony walked away from a costly Kojima game that is years from done. A report names the budget and the likely profit, after his last game sold about 2.5 million copies.
Modern Warfare 4's campaign

Call of Duty puts out a sequel every year, and Treyarch said it is ready to make something new only after two Black Ops games in a row.

Where you've seen this

Hollywood films

a film that costs hundreds of millions is usually a sequel or a superhero, while odd stories get small budgets

Pop music

the biggest labels spend most on artists who already had a hit, and new sounds start at small labels

Car makers

a new model shares most parts with the old one, because a whole new design costs too much to get wrong

The catch

It is a pull, not a rule. Xbox has just taken on Physint, a costly game nobody has seen, because Kojima's name makes the risk look smaller.

And the whole of it

The designer, the publisher, the investor and the player all pick the safe choice, each for a sensible reason. Nobody in that chain can see the new game that was never made.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

Sony dropped Hideo Kojima's Physint after his last game sold about 2.5 million copies, and a report says the budget and the likely profit were the reasons. Xbox picked the game up and used its Tokyo broadcast to name the star, because a famous designer's new game gives Xbox something PlayStation owners cannot get, in Japan, where Xbox has long struggled against Sony and Nintendo.

Why it works on us — A famous designer and a famous actor make a game with no date and no footage sound certain to succeed.

Who gains

Xbox — It gets a new Kojima spy game, seen as a successor in spirit to Metal Gear Solid, and a star to show on stage in Japan. [4][5]
Kojima Productions — Its game survived PlayStation's cancellation and now has a publisher paying for it. [4][8]
Old game owners like Sega and Bandai Namco — Nex Playground has partnered with them to bring Sonic and Pac-Man to its console, and publishers are offering it their old Kinect and Wii games. [12]
Capcom — It sells Monster Hunter Wilds owners an expansion built around a monster fans have known since 2006. [13]
Moza — A PlayStation licence opens Gran Turismo 7 players to its wheels for the first time. [14]

Who pays

Microsoft staff still facing cuts — Xbox is spending on Physint in the same year Microsoft let go of studios such as Arkane, which made stealth games. [5]
Diablo 4 players on Switch 2 — Their first day with the game was a login outage of more than six hours. [16][17]
Jujutsu Kaisen fans — The game promised for 2026 now arrives in 2027. [18]
Nex Playground buyers in the US — The console's price rose by $50 this year because memory chips cost more. [12]
PlayStation owners — The Kojima spy game first announced for their console is now being paid for and shown by Xbox. [8][1]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

What Physint costs and when it will come out.

Neither Xbox nor Kojima Productions has given a budget or a year, and Kojima's own 2025 guess was five to six more years of work. [8][1]
02

Why exactly Sony walked away.

Sony has not explained it. A report cited by Eurogamer names the budget, the likely profit and the exclusivity terms, and an analyst points to Death Stranding 2's sales. [4][8]
03

How many copies Death Stranding 2 really sold.

The 2.5 million figure is an outside estimate by the research firm Alinea Analytics, not a number from Sony or Kojima Productions. [8]
04

Whether Physint will also come to PlayStation.

Kojima called it a new Xbox game on stage, but none of the reports in this edition says whether it will be sold only on Xbox. [1][4]
05

Whether Modern Warfare 4 ends the whole Modern Warfare series or only the story begun in 2019.

Activision's word was an "epic conclusion", and IGN says it is unclear which one it means. [7]
06

When Dragon Quest 12 will come out.

Square Enix restarted it from scratch and has given no date or window. [11]
07

How much Nex Playground's price rises have not covered.

Its chief executive says the move from $249 to $299 does not cover all the rise in memory and part costs, but gives no figure. [12]
08

What caused Diablo 4's six-hour outage.

Blizzard said it was fixing login errors and turned off some features, but has not said what broke. [16]

04 Hope carry this

Dragon Quest, a Japanese adventure series, has now sold more than 100 million copies. The first game came out in Japan in May 1986.

Also true today

Freefall Racers, a 2013 Kinect game that had lost the machine it ran on, was played by 150,000 families in its first month on the Nex Playground console.
Hideo Kojima's Physint was cancelled by PlayStation in June. Three months later it has a publisher, a lead actor and new artwork.