Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima has provided a year-end update on his upcoming projects, currently codenamed OD and Physint, and it sounds like SAG strikes heavily impacted both games.
In a post on social media platform X, Kojima says that during 2024, his studio Kojima Productions "developed [OD] and had actor and environment scanning", but that during the second half of the year, "scanning and filming were suspended due to the SAG strike".
Of Physint, Kojima says that "casting was also suspended" for the game owing to the strike. It sounds like Physint is currently a lot earlier in development than OD, which makes sense given that the latter has an official trailer (albeit a brief one) and the former does not.
In case you're not aware, Kojima is likely referring to the July SAG-AFTRA strike, which saw voice actors and mocap artists going on strike after negotations regarding generative AI protections broke down.
The strike is technically still ongoing; at time of writing, no overarching agreement has been reached, although a number of gaming companies have signed agreements with SAG in order to protect its members from generative AI exploitation.
Indeed, in Kojima's message, he says that he and his studio "hope to resume next year", which evidently means that the filming, capture, and casting processes haven't restarted for either OD or Physint.
Kojima also recaps the rest of his year in the message, as well as providing an update on the upcoming live-action Death Stranding film, which is being produced in conjunction with movie production company A24. He says preparations for the movie, as well as "other adaptations", are underway.
Production also continues apace on the upcoming Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which still doesn't have a release date, although it's set to launch sometime this year.
Kojima's message also comes just under two months after the surprise Xbox release of the original Death Stranding, which also saw Kojima Productions acquiring the rights to the IP.
