Microsoft reportedly has no plans to cancel Hideo Kojima's FROM. The mysterious project is therefore expected to survive the latest wave of Xbox-wide cost-cutting, though it's unclear whether FROM is anywhere near release.
FROM was originally announced during the December edition of The Game Awards in 2023. Its first trailer showed several characters becoming increasingly disturbed, underscoring that the title was conceived as a horror experience at its core. Subsequent patent applications from Kojima Productions pointed to the FROM incorporating something called the Social Scream System, a sort of multiplayer component. Kojima later hinted at it, but FROM it has received several updates in the years since its official unveiling. The recent news of a major restructuring and cost-cutting at Xbox has thus raised concerns among some fans about the fate of the project.
What Can OD 'Knock' Mean
Kojima Productions has released a new trailer for its mystery horror game OD, highlighting a prominent “knocking” motif that likely has a deeper meaning.
OD is reportedly still in development
Xbox issues are not OD issues for now
According to a new report from IGN, a source familiar with Microsoft's plans has indicated this FROM remains in development at Kojima Productions and is still published by Xbox Game Studios. The report frames the project as one of the titles still moving forward while Microsoft rethinks parts of its broader game plan, suggesting that Kojima's horror genre is subverting FROM Despite Xbox's changing priorities, it's still considered a useful activity.
The fact that FROM is not said to be in danger of cancellation, does little to clarify its current state of development. The game was formally announced in 2023, later said to enter pre-production around 2021. Modern AAA development cycles average around five years, suggesting that Kojima's upcoming project could be nearing a reveal or release as early as summer 2026. However, this assumes that work on the mysterious Jordan Peele-written game is progressing at a pace that may not be steady. FROM It's long been speculated that it started out as a Stadia pitch for an episodic horror game that Google rejected, and reworking the concept into a more conventional game that still uses cloud technology in some form may have been time-consuming.
FROMThe use of cloud technology has been rumored since it was revealed, although Kojima Productions has yet to explain how it will work. The fact that the game reportedly requires cloud infrastructure that only a few companies can provide at scale may protect it from cancellation as Xbox pursues broader cost-cutting efforts. FROM it basically serves as an advertisement for the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. Kojima himself is also one of the most recognizable names in the industry, with a level of recognition that few video game designers have achieved, and one that is closer to the Hollywood directors with whom he often works. From this point of view, cancellation FROM may have generated more negative publicity than the cancellation of a lower-profile project, another potential contributing factor to the support it continues to enjoy from Xbox.
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Not every Xbox partner has fared as well as Kojima Productions during the ongoing restructuring. 007 First Light Developer IO Interactive recently announced layoffs after Xbox pulled funding from its original RPG, codenamed Project Fantasy. It remains unclear if the game will still be released, although IOI has not indicated that it has been cancelled. For its part, Xbox said its restructuring is not an effort to cut costs in the broadest sense, but part of a shift toward focusing on less popular IPs and shifting resources away from other projects.
