Hideo Kojima wants people to know that he is a decidedly independent video game developer. That is to say, not only does he study it “has no affiliations with anyone”, but “every day” the death stranding Author rejects purchase offers from other companies.
“Some of those deals are ridiculously high prices,” Kojima said in his latest edition of Brain Structure, a podcast. available via Spotify. (For the record, Kojima speaks in Japanese, with an English overdub.) “But it’s not that I want money. I want to do what I want to do. That’s why I created this studio.”
Kojima hosts the podcast, and his guest this week was his good friend Geoff Keighley, himself the host of The Game Awards, then, Kojima seemingly leads the discussion. (Disclosure: Kojima is a member of the advisory board for The Game Awards.)
However, Keighley quickly stepped into the role of interviewer, asking Kojima about recent developments in the games industry. “There are so many rumors about gaming, especially on social media, and I thought maybe we’d talk about some of the rumors that are out there and some of the truth behind those rumours,” Keighley said.
The two then got into a lengthy discussion about the culture of rumors, entertainment products, and social media. after mentioning this summer’s announcement that Kojima was working on a game for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios, Keighley mentioned Kojima’s already close working relationship with PlayStation and Sony Interactive Entertainment (death stranding was, and still is, a PlayStation console exclusive), and whether he had engaged with one console manufacturer or another over the years.
“I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding about Kojima Productions,” he said. “I created this company in 2015 after leaving Konami. It was 100% out of pocket. There is no funding from anyone at all. So we are independent.
Kojima acknowledged that his studio’s actual physical proximity to Sony’s world headquarters (in Shibuya, Tokyo), as well as the headquarters of Sony Interactive Entertainment, means that “people tend to think we’re part of Sony”. But as this summer’s announcement about Microsoft indicates, “we are independent. We have no affiliations of any kind, and we are not endorsed by anyone. […] And every day I get offers from all over the world to buy our studio.
“Some of those deals are ridiculously high prices, but it’s not like I want the money,” Kojima said. “I want to do what I want to do. That’s why I created this studio.”
In other words, for those waiting for Kojima Productions (and ludens pet) to be the last acquisition of big names in a year shot through themdon’t hold your breath. “As long as I’m alive, I don’t think I’ll ever accept those offers,” Kojima said.
Kojima’s stance is supposed to stem from how his tenure at Konami ended in 2015, when the publisher discarded it Y your ideas in favor of making pachinko machines Y burning Pro Evolution Soccer to the ground.
But Kojima also speaks like an artist (35 and counting, in this medium) who understands creative capital and how much he’s earned.
