For some time now we’ve been hearing rumors that Hideo Kojima is in talks with Microsoft about publishing his next game, a rather large potential defection considering Kojima’s last game was a PlayStation exclusive. Well, according to VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb, who broke these rumors to begin with, the negotiations between Kojima and Microsoft have reached the next level.

　　Word is, Kojima and Microsoft have signed a letter of intent that states the two will work together to create a new Xbox game. This isn’t a final publishing contract, nitty-gritty details still need to be worked out, but a signed letter of intent means that’s almost certainly going to happen. Of course, take this all with a grain of salt until something is officially announced, but Grubb certainly seems confident about this story.

　　So, if the deal goes through, what might Kojima be working on for Xbox? Well, Microsoft recently brought on Valve and Stadia veteran Kim Swift as a new Xbox Cloud Gaming senior director, with the rumor being that she’ll be directly helping Kojima make his next game. Prior to exploring a deal with Microsoft, Kojima was said to be making a game for Stadia that would have really pushed that platform's unique features. That was scuttled when Google got out of the original Stadia games business, but it seems likely whatever he makes for Microsoft will be a continuation of the Stadia project, and thus a cloud-native experience. Kojima has also hinted his next game will weave in various “societal elements” similar to Death Stranding, although obviously it won’t be a direct sequel to that game.

　　What do you think? Looking forward to whatever cloud-based weirdness Kojima bakes up with Microsoft? In the meantime, on the subject of another Kojima platform exclusive, Death Stranding Director’s Cut is coming to PS5 sometime soon.