Kojima's OD survives Microsoft's Xbox reset — again

Hideo Kojima's horror project OD is safe from Microsoft's latest round of cuts, according to sources familiar with the company's plans. Xbox will continue to publish the Kojima Productions title even as the division undergoes what CEO Asha Sharma is calling a "reset" — a broad reassessment of where Microsoft puts its gaming money.

The reset is drawing real blood elsewhere. Microsoft pulled funding from IO Interactive's online fantasy RPG this week, triggering layoffs at the Hitman and 007: First Light studio. Five internal Xbox studios are also reportedly at risk of closure: Arkane Lyon (Marvel's Blade), Double Fine (Psychonauts), Ninja Theory (Hellblade), Compulsion Games (South of Midnight), and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3). Studio leadership is said to be exploring selloffs or management buyouts to survive. Microsoft's official line is that total investment in games stays roughly flat — what's changing is which projects get the money. OD survives that filter. The last public look at the game came in summer 2025, when Kojima Productions showed Unreal Engine footage and revealed the subtitle Knock. The cast includes Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and the late Udo Kier, who died in November aged 81 — Kojima Productions had completed a scan of the actor but didn't finish a shoot in time. Jordan Peele, director of Get Out and Nope, is also involved, though his exact role remains unclear. Kojima has described OD as "a game and at the same time a movie and at the same time a new form of media," and told Entertainment Weekly he wants it to be "as scary as possible" while building in a system for players who might otherwise quit from fear — details he's keeping vague to avoid spoiling the mechanic.

This is actually the second time OD has dodged the axe. It survived Microsoft's mass layoff wave roughly a year ago, when games like Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot were cancelled. The project was originally greenlit by former Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who was replaced by Asha Sharma earlier this year. Sharma has been publicly enthusiastic: "I think it just represents another kind of game," she told Entertainment Weekly, adding that OD signals Xbox has "not reached the boundary of games." Microsoft has also walked away from publishing deals with Brenda and John Romero's new game and, according to Game File, with Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Désilets and his project 1666: Amsterdam — both casualties of the same broader pullback from third-party partnerships.

No release window for OD has been announced, and Kojima himself has admitted he doesn't know if the concept will work. Given how little has been shown in three years of development, the community is watching Microsoft's next official statement closely to see whether OD's survival is confirmed outright or remains a matter of unnamed sources.