Hideo Kojima has returned to his once dormant YouTube channel, HideoTube, after seven years to discuss Death Stranding 2, his recently announced return to the action-espionage genre, and to talk openly about a difficult time he went through during the height of the pandemic.
During the PlayStation State of Play January 2024 showcase, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima announced his return to the action-espionage genre with a video game and movie hybrid codenamed Physint that’ll have "near life-like graphics”.
We don’t know much about Physint, but what we do know suggests a PlayStation 6 launch is a distinct possibility. During State of Play, Kojima said production is expected to begin "in earnest" at Kojima Productions after Death Stranding 2 and in partnership with Sony.
In the new video, Kojima again bigged up Physint’s visuals. “It will be both a game and a movie at the same time,” he said. “That’s why we were at Sony Pictures. A new action-espionage game. Of course, it will be a game. However, if your mother walks in and sees you playing this game, she’ll think you’re watching a movie. I’m not sure how far we can take it yet.”
Kojima is of course famous for his fancy cutscenes and hyper-detailed character models. The way he’s talking about Physint, it sounds like we can expect another leap in visuals.
Kojima then went on to discuss why he decided to make Physint, pointing to the many requests he’s had to make another Metal Gear game. “... because I became independent, I wanted to do something new with my own IP,” he said. “So to challenge myself, I first made DS. Then, to create a franchise, I made DS2. 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.”
Kojima then talked about a moment in 2020 during the pandemic when he became so ill he had to have surgery and even wrote a will. It sounds like a serious moment in the life of the 60-year-old, so much so that he considered leaving video game development behind. But it was a message from Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro, who starred in Death Stranding, that Kojima credits as “saving” him.
“I fell ill in 2020,” Kojima said. “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 realised that people die. But, I turned 60 last year. I’ll turn 70 in 10 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. I get many requests from Hollywood to make films, but I’ve refused them. Because I have my own company now, I can’t leave for one or two years to go make a movie. The company would collapse. I was in a tough spot.
“And I talked to Guillermo del Toro about it. And he said, ‘Hideo, what you’re making is already a movie. Keep going as you are.’ His words saved me.
“And since we’ll be working with many creators in the business, though the output is a game, it won’t be too different from movies.”
Kojima’s video is worth a watch as it goes into more detail on Death Stranding 2, revealing various story and character details while retaining much of the mystery he’s famous for fostering.
It’s a busy time for Kojima, who is working on Death Stranding 2, OD for Microsoft, and Physint for Sony. There’s also an untitled Death Stranding film in the works.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
