For the first time in seven years legendary game creator Hideo Kojima has returned to his YouTube series “HideoTube,” with a special 50-minute episode that dives deep into Death Stranding, as well as his newly-announced stealth action game Physint.
The video was uploaded on the Kojima Productions channel, and one of the interesting aspects is when Kojima talks about how getting ill in 2020 pushed him to make Physint. Here’s the full comment.
“So why did I decide to make this? Well first off, because I became independent, I wanted to do something new with my own IP,” explained Kojima. “So, to challenge myself, I first made Death Stranding. Then, to create a franchise, I made Death Stranding 2. And I wanted to do something even newer, so I started working on OD. And since then, there have been a lot of new ideas. But in the last eight years, every day on social media, from users all around the world, people have been asking me to create another Metal Gear and stuff like that,”
“Then, I fell ill in 2020. It was also during the pandemic, so I was sick and isolated during all of it. I even had surgery. And I thought, ‘I can’t anymore.’ I was at my lowest and felt like I couldn’t go back to making games. I wrote a will, too. And in that moment, I realized that people die. But, I turned 60 last year. I’ll turn 70 in ten years. I hope to never retire. Having said that, if the users desire it so much, I thought I should change my priorities a bit. I still want to do new things, but I decided to make an action espionage game.
From there, Kojima also says he gets “many requests” from Hollywood to make films but has refused them because of his obligations at Kojima Productions. When he talked to Guillermo Del Toro about the subject he was told “Hideo, what you’re making is already a movie. Keep going on as you are.”
On the topic of movies, the HideoTube episode also discusses the upcoming Death Stranding film being made in collaboration with A24.
“In the past, film adaptations of video games always failed… But in the last 4-5 years, people who understand games have taken on the task of adapting it into a film or drama,” says Kojima “Several hits have been made, like the Mario movie. That’s the trend these days.”With A24, I want to make something that’s based on a game but also indie and artistic – something that can win awards at film festivals like Cannes, Venice or Sundance.”
Both the Death Stranding film and Physint don’t have any release window. Kojima’s next project is Death Stranding 2, which is scheduled to release on PS5 in 2025. The studio is also working on OD in collaboration with Xbox,
