Hideo Kojima is considered by many to be one of the greatest visionaries in gaming. Best known for the hugely successful Metal Gear franchise, his games have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and have typically performed strongly with reviewers and critics. As a result, the console on which his next project will be available is something of a hot topic right now; with many believing that Microsoft is in pole position to publish the next Kojima game for its Xbox consoles.

This speculation has largely been sparked by recent comments made by VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb and Microsoft's executive vice-president of gaming and Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer. While a Hideo Kojima game on Xbox is certainly a possibility, though, it now seems like a partnership with the American company may not have been the Kojima's first choice; at least if the co-founder of XboxEra Nick Baker is to be believed, anyway.

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While speaking on the most recent edition of the XboxEra podcast, Baker, who uses the Twitter handle @Shpeshal_Ed, revealed that he has known that Kojima's next title wouldn't be coming to the PS5 since June of last year. As the discussion progressed, he elaborated further on this, stating that he was under the impression that Kojima had taken the project to Sony first, but had ultimately been knocked back by the Japanese company. He later mentions that Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan may have been the one who passed on a deal, although has since walked this back; clarifying that Ryan likely wasn't the who had the final say on the matter.

Whether or not there is any truth to this is difficult to say and, due to the delicate nature of video game publishing deals, will likely never be officially confirmed. It would, however, line up with some of the other rumors that have cropped up in recent months, like Kojima pitching the project to Google for the company's Stadia platform before entering into discussions with Microsoft. The latter would also line up with suggestions that Microsoft may be targeting influential Japanese game developers with a view to increasing its presence in the east.

Why exactly Sony would turn down the opportunity to publish another Kojima game is unclear, although many will likely speculate that it has something to do with the commercial performance of Death Stranding. Despite the game's successful PC launch, the PS4 version of the game failed to set charts alight when it launched in late 2019. It debuted at number seven in the NPD Group's list of the 20 best selling games for November before falling out of the chart completely the following month; sparking rumors that Sony was unhappy with Death Stranding sales.

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