After the launch and quick success of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, director Hideo Kojima has revealed some of his thoughts about the AAA gaming industry. In an interview with Ssense, Kojima expressed some disappointment at the current state of the industry, saying that too many big budget games end up looking too similar.
The publication noted that Kojima sounded disappointed in the interview about the current state of the industry, especially because most AAA games released these days end up being too big and bloated. Kojima noted that, during last month’s Summer Games Fest, the barrage of back-to-back trailers made all games look like they somehow involved players fighting either an alien monster or a medieval monster.
“Even the visuals and the systems are pretty much the same,” he said, “and a lot of people enjoy this, I understand, but it is important to put something really new in there for the industry.”
In the interview, Kojima also spoke about the importance of game developers truly understanding the subject matter of the games they’re making. Recalling a story about advising a development team about a stealth game, Kojima said that he was disappointed that “People who are making military games, they probably don’t know how to dismantle a gun or shoot a gun.” He continued, “So that’s kind of sad.”
When asked if he knew how to dismantle a gun, Kojima emphatically responded by saying, “Yes, because I’ve been doing this training as well, and I learned so many ways to kill people as well.”
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was recently released exclusively on PS5. Leading up to its release, Kojima had revealed in an interview that he tends to add his own cameos into his games. “I put all of these things in,” responded Kojima (translation via Google). “Even if I said to the staff, ‘please put them in!’, they would just say ‘huh?’ and pretend not to know.”
Kojima had also spoken about how many people had come to Kojima Productions offices to get scanned and hopefully featured in the game. However, he mentioned that so many people had shown up for the scan that not every cameo could make it into the game. “We scan them, ask them what kind of role they would like, and make them appear… that’s how it feels,” he said.
With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach having been out for a month now, Kojima Productions had released infographics earlier this month to highlight some interesting statistics about how players spent time with the title. Among other things, the infographics revealed that kangaroos have been the most rescued animals in the game, followed by emus and wombats. The infographics also revealed that the Assault Rifle with MP Bullets was by far the most used weapon in the game, with the Ladder being the most used tool.
For more details about Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, check out our review. If you’ve already finished the game, here are some options for what you can do in the post-game sections.