For a long, long time, while he was at Konami, Hideo Kojima was working almost exclusively on Metal Gear Solid, and he made no secret of the fact that he wanted to move away from the property and try new things. Now, as an independent developer, he and his team at Kojima Productions have the freedom to do just that, and as was evidenced by Death Stranding, they’re not exactly averse to taking risks.
But is there a chance that at some point in the future, Kojima decides to work on a big pre-established IP once again? Could Kojima Productions end up developing an instalment in a known, existing franchise at some point in the future?
That is something that Kojima seems averse to. Speaking in a recent interview with IGN, when talking about the projects that the studio currently has in the works, he explained that his approach with all current and future projects is “to leave behind good work” rather than chasing financial growth- which, according to Kojima, means working exclusively on the studio’s own original properties rather than working on something that’s been licensed out.
“Kojima Production isn’t publicly traded, so I don’t have some goal of steadily growing the company,” he said. “I just want to leave behind good work, and that’s the stance I’m taking while making games, while also considering making other kinds of visual projects. We’re going to maintain the stance of making our own IP and not working on IP licensed from others.”
Given Kojima’s history, it goes without saying that there’s no shortage of people who’d love to see him come back to Metal Gear Solid one day, while in the past, leaks have also made claims of his involvement in Silent Hill. And while one can’t ever fully discount the possibility of that happening down the line (even if that’s only out of foolish hope), it seems clear that that’s not the direction Kojima wants to take.
That said, fans of his work have plenty to look forward to nonetheless. Death Stranding 2 is in the works for PS5, while Kojima Productions is also working on a cloud-native Xbox-exclusive title, which, according to leaks, is a horror game named Overdose.
