Xbox's Physint Deal: Not $400 Million, Reports Say

Remember that wild rumor about Xbox dropping $400 million on Hideo Kojima's Physint? Well, it might be time to pump the brakes on that one. According to new reports, the actual figure is significantly less than that eye-watering number.

First, a quick catch-up: Physint is Kojima's spiritual successor to Metal Gear, and in a twist nobody saw coming—including, probably, Kojima himself—Xbox is now publishing the game instead of PlayStation. Why? Because Sony apparently decided it wanted to cancel the whole thing. Ouch. The game's future is now safe, even with Xbox's ongoing restructuring, but the question of why Sony bailed still lingers.

One report from Bloomberg claimed Physint was set to go "well over budget," but Kojima Productions fired back, saying none of those claims came from official or on-the-record sources and urging fans to take them with a dose of scepticism. Fair enough. Yet the whispers kept going, and last week, The Game Business editor-in-chief Christopher Dring said a $400 million budget was the figure being tossed around bars in Tokyo. That's a lot of sake-fueled speculation, but it sounds like the rumor mill may have exaggerated things.

Enter Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who's hesitant to throw out exact numbers without seeing documentation or corroborating with multiple firsthand sources. In a ResetEra post, he wrote: "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 backed that up, claiming sources with direct knowledge of the contracts said the number is significantly smaller than $400 million. Even Dring himself tweeted that he's since been told Xbox is paying "quite a bit less" than that.

So what's the real budget? Nobody's saying. But let's be real: cheap AAA games are basically unicorns these days, and Physint has serious Hollywood firepower. John Wick 4 star Bill Skarsgård is cast as the protagonist, with Charlee Fraser, Don Lee, and Minami Hamabe also on board. That's not exactly a shoestring production. Still, it's probably not the wallet-shredding $400 million ask either.

Kojima has said Xbox had "never seen" anything like Physint, which is saying something considering it was the only publisher that didn't think his OD pitch was "crazy." So while the exact price tag remains a mystery, one thing's clear: Xbox is all in on Kojima's wild vision.

What do you think—is Physint worth whatever Xbox is paying? And will you be picking it up when it finally lands?