Hideo Kojima, the man behind the Metal Gear and Death Stranding series, thinks that gaming hardware platforms will eventually disappear, and everything will be sharable at any time on a number of different devices.
Speaking with IGN, the legendary game designer discussed a variety of topics, including the drastic changes in the entertainment fields in the past few years, saying that gaming hardware platforms will vanish at some point and gaming will be widely available on a range of different devices, such as smart devices and PCs. His main concern, however, is about a world where entertainment is brought down from above, making a very interesting parallel with how the wide availability of compact discs changed music, with the ability to skip through songs influencing songwriting in certain ways.
I think that gaming hardware platforms will ultimately vanish, and it will all be sharable anytime, anywhere and with anyone, on devices like smartphones, tablets and PCs. My concern, though, is that the world might become one where entertainment is brought down to us from above. Even now, AI will recommend what it thinks you’ll like, and I think we’ll end in a place where individual videos change depending on who is watching them.
The sound of music changed once it started being released on CD instead of vinyl records. You’re able to instantly skip tracks on a CD, so the order of the verses, bridges and choruses in a song began to shift [to engage the listener from the start of the song]. Maybe it’s inevitable that only pleasing works of entertainment will survive as entertainment changes because of the medium, but there is a danger to that as well.
In the interview, Hideo Kojima also talked briefly about Death Stranding 2 and its recently announced movie adaptation. The second entry in the series, as previously mentioned, has been rewritten due to the pandemic, as Hideo Kojima felt the story written before wouldn’t resonate as well with players that have gone through the pandemic.
It was the same with 9/11. Fiction changes when something that big happens. When something takes place that nobody thought was possible, works of fiction written before it become less effective as entertainment.
That’s why I completely rewrote DS2 from its themes up as well. You can’t pretend that something this big never happened. While the games themselves are based on characters who are not bound by our reality, the players themselves have gone through the pandemic, and a story written before that experience just wouldn’t resonate with them in the same way, whether it was a fantasy story or a sci-fi one.
Speaking about the Death Stranding movie adaptation, Hideo Kojima confirmed that he has received a lot of offers, but his intention was not to make a blockbuster film. Hammerstone Studios’ Alex Lebovici was the only one that offered to make a film with a more artsy approach, thus making their partnership happen. In regards to story and characters, Hideo Kojima hasn’t decided on anything yet, but he confirmed he will take the movie in a direction that nobody has tried before with a movie adaptation of a game.
We haven’t quite decided that yet. The failure of film adaptations of games from a while back has led to a lot of movies that cater to gamers, right? That’s why they have the same kind of look as a game. I don’t want the Death Stranding movie to be like that. Rather, I’m taking the approach of changing and evolving the world of Death Stranding in a way that suits film well. I made Death Stranding to be a game, and games are games. There’s no real need to turn them into films. So in a way, the Death Stranding movie is taking a direction that nobody has tried before with a movie adaptation of a game. I think that what I need to make is something that will inspire some of the people who watch it to become creators 10 or 20 years down the line.
Alongside Death Stranding 2, Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions are also working on a new cloud project with Microsoft. According to the game designer, this project is one he has been thinking about for the past five or six years, requiring infrastructure that was never needed before. Microsoft ultimately showed that they understood, starting the collaboration between the two companies.
I tend to get easily bored. Part of why I’ve been able to make games for 30 years is because new technology replaces the old so quickly. The tech you use today may not be applicable tomorrow, and I’m interested in figuring out ways to incorporate the new. Making the wrong choice can result in failure, of course. It’s a bit like a space program in that way.
The project we’re working on with Microsoft is one I have been thinking about for five or six years already. The project required infrastructure that was never needed before, so I discussed it with lots of different big companies and gave presentations, but they really seemed to think that I was mad. It was ultimately Microsoft who showed that they understood, and now we’re working together on the project, including the technology front.
As mentioned above, Death Stranding 2 is one of Kojima Productions’ next titles. It has been announced earlier this month during The Game Awards 2022 show, and it will launch on PlayStation 5 on a yet-to-be-confirmed release date.
