Hideo Kojima recently provided an update on the development of two Kojima Production games, OD and Physint, saying work on both projects was held up in 2024 due to the Screen Actors Guild’s strike. Although the strike has ended for Hollywood actors, video game performers are still striking.
“For OD, we developed the game and had actor and environment scanning,” Kojima said via X (formerly Twitter). “In the second half of the year, scanning and filming were suspended due to the SAG strike. Casting was also suspended for Physint due to the strike. We hope to resume next year.”
While we’ve seen quite a bit of Kojima Productions’ next game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, its other projects remain shrouded in mystery.
Early gameplay footage of OD — known at the time as Overdose — appeared online in Nov. 2022 before the Xbox exclusive was officially revealed a year later at The Game Awards. Kojima teased the project alongside director and collaborator Jordan Peele with a video showcasing actors Sophia Lillis (It, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria, Cuckoo), and Udo Kier (Hunters, Bacurau) reciting a pangram in what appears to be the famous Kojima Productions 3D model-scanning machine.
Even less is known about Physint, which itself is a working title. The game, exclusive to PlayStation, is apparently meant as Kojima’s return to the film-like action-espionage style he established with the Metal Gear series.
“I cannot tell you so much now,” Kojima said while announcing the project during a State of Play broadcast in Jan. 2024, “but we plan to bring together cutting-edge technology and talent from around the world to create [Physint]. Of course, it is an interactive game, but it is also a movie at the same time, in terms of look, story, theme, cast, acting, fashion, and sound. With this title, we hope to transcend the barrier between films and video games.”
Kojima further explained his motivations for making Physint in Feb. 2024, saying he was inspired to return to his roots after a health scare.
The strike currently affecting OD and Physint development as well as other parts of the video game industry formally kicked off in July 2024. Organized by the Screen Actors Guild after negotiations between the union and several major video game studios broke down, the strike’s major concern is AI protections for actors who are in danger of having their performances recycled through generative technology without payment or approval.
“The bottom line is if you have performers working for you, helping create the content that’s in your game, whether it’s voice content, whether it’s stunt work, whether it’s motion work… all of those performers deserve to have their right to have informed consent and fair compensation for the use of their image, their likeness or voice, their performance,” SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said at the time. “It’s that simple.”
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