An Audience With Hideo Kojima

Life after Metal Gear: the Japanese auteur on games versus films, and new beginnings.

- Simon Parkin

Such is the level of paranoia surrounding the venture that, seven months after the founding of Kojima Productions, the independent studio won’t confirm, even off the record, how many staff it currently employs. The team is worried. It’s clearly been a bad breakup as far as Konami, Hideo Kojima’s employer of more than two decades, is concerned. There are concerns about litigation. Some team members refuse to be photographed; they don’t want people knowing where they work.

Kojima, meanwhile, has never looked better. Even while labouring under 12-hour jetlag he looks bright and far more youthful than his 52 years. The elbowy title of his new game, Death Stranding, has been announced and, while the director is unwilling to discuss precise details, it’s clear he’s assembled the team he wants to work on the project he wants. “No questions about his previous games please,” his faithful PA – who fled Konami with her boss last year – says at the start of the interview. Kojima, it seems, has moved on. But to where?

The past year has been a time of great change and, presumably, drama in your life. How have you managed to remain so calm and focused throughout all of the turmoil, especially while trying to set up a new company?

Well, when I was still working on