Kojima Productions have been working hard to expand the studio in the seven years since its debut. With the recent reveal of Death Stranding 2 at the 2022 Game Awards along with other mysterious posts on studio owner Hideo Kojima’s Twitter account, it’s clear that they have a lot planned for the future. In an interview with Kojima, IGN gained insight into the future of Kojima Productions and its upcoming games.

Hideo Kojima spoke with IGN to discuss Death Stranding 2, memories of Konami, seven years at Kojima Productions, and much more!

Our exclusive interview: https://t.co/Ujb7wOTPjL pic.twitter.com/MuAUhAtO8G

— IGN (@IGN) December 22, 2022

Kojima gave a glimpse at the process of forming Kojima Productions, his experiences learned during his time with Konami, the development process of Death Stranding, and the future of the industry. Setting up an independent game studio required a large amount of time and patience for Kojima, especially when he confirmed that he was making Death Stranding while setting everything else up. He equated the process to making an independent film.

” …I was constantly anxious about whether people would really come to work with us, or if we’d be able to complete our game, but I had a sense of duty.” said Kojima. “Ultimately, I just had to do what I’ve always done, which is make games. I may not have had money or equipment, but I did things as I’d always done when making things at Konami…”

Additionally, Kojima discussed how the pandemic affected Kojima Productions and Death Stranding 2’s creation, stating that the game had to be rewritten because “when something happens no one would have ever imagined, previous works of fiction become less effective as entertainment.”

When it came to the future of the industry, Kojima noted that gaming could fall in a similar direction as movie subscriptions, where everything is shareable and personalized AI can recommend titles based on user preferences. He explained that while those concepts might seem inevitable, it’s important for people to have other experiences and entertainment that requires the viewer to ease into like Death Stranding.

The interview finished off with information of two of Kojima Production’s recent projects, the Death Stranding movie, and the untitled cloud game in collaboration with Microsoft.While the plot of the film is largely unknown, Kojima was quick to say that it wouldn’t be a typical blockbuster instead, Kojima aims to branch into arthouse territory. It was why Hammerstone Studios was chosen due to them sharing Kojima’s vision for the film.

Lastly, when speaking about the cloud gaming project with Microsoft, Kojima noted that the ambitious game had been in his thoughts for about five or six years before landing on Microsoft. Many companies turned it down when it was pitched for being too outlandish, but Kojima revealed that Microsoft was the company that understood his idea and the type of technology needed for it to work.

“…The tech you use today may not be applicable tomorrow, and I’m interested in figuring out ways to incorporate the new.” said Kojima. ” Making the wrong choice can result in failure, of course. It’s a bit like a space program in that way…”

Despite the interview giving only a snapshot into Kojima Productions, the information that Kojima revealed shows an ambitious man and studio that pushes creativity to its limits. Kojima Productions seems to be the perfect studio for creatives in different fields to intersect with the video game community, and as the years progress, it’s nearly assured that that will happen more often.