Hideo Kojima announced a new action espionage game called Physint. What does that strange title mean?
If there’s anyone in the gaming industry who likes going freaky with it, it’s Hideo Kojima. So of course, when he finally announced a spiritual successor to his legendary Metal Gear Solid series, he went and called it Physint. What the heck is a Physint?
Physint Explained: Possible Definitions & Explanations
Physint seems to be a made-up word, as research doesn’t bring up any set results or definitions. This had fans speculating about what the title could mean. The word seems to be a portmanteau of Physical Intelligence, which in turn has different definitions.
The one that makes the most sense, is that “intelligence” refers to intel and the gathering of it. The suffix “-int” is often used to describe intelligence gathering disciplines. Kojima himself has done so, as the Metal Gear Solid series features a character called Sigint, which stands for Signal Intelligence.
Considering that this brand-new project is going back to the action-espionage genre of MGS, it would make sense that Physint would refer to the physical gathering of intelligence. This is not an officially used term, but Kojima is no stranger to making stuff up for his games.
There are other uses of Phyiscal Intelligence, that could be related to the game, but where the possible connections seem less obvious. One of the top comments under the announcement video of Physint quotes a research paper on mechanics and robotics, saying: “Physical Intelligence, refers to the ability of systems, particularly artificial ones like robots or machines, to understand and interact with the physical world.”
However, this type of Physical Intelligence is abbreviated as PI, and not as Physint. It doesn’t seem unlikely, though, that Kojima would look at the current state of AI and robotics and try to say something about it with his latest project.
What do you think Physint could mean? Are you excited for Kojima’s return to action espionage? Let us know in the comments!