In a new commentary video under Kojima Productions, renowned video game director Hideo Kojima says that a severe illness brought him to his lowest—and eventually gave him motivation to create Physint, the new action-espionage game announced this week.
In the first episode of “HideoTube” in seven years, Kojima sat to talk about the upcoming games announced during this week’s State of Play and November’s Game Awards. Also featured are Risa Unai, a newscaster known in Japan for being a gamer, as well as Sam Bridges’ Japanese voice actor, Kenjiro Tsuda, who also voices Kento Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen and Overhaul in My Hero Academia, plus English actors from the games that already have trailers.
Towards the end of the episode, when the show gets into the topic of Physint, Kojima talks about his inspirations and decision to make the game. He says that he had plenty of new ideas, but his choice to continue with Physint was essentially founded in an existential crisis. Over the many years since he left Konami, he knew that fans wanted more Metal Gear Solid from him, or at least something of that flavor.
“Then, I fell ill in 2020,” he said, with official translations via the Kojima Productions channel. “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 realized that people die. But, I turned 60 last year. I’ll turn 70 in ten 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.”
He goes on to discuss how Hollywood wanted him to make movies, but he preferred to stay in games, especially as Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro told him he’s essentially already making movies (a common observation of Death Stranding by fans and critics).
The full episode of HideoTube lets Kojima get into commentary on the Death Stranding 2 trailer shown during the Sony State of Play stream. The trailer clocked in at nearly ten minutes long and, despite its “Hollywood AAA game” approach, features a quirky cast of characters that could rival a classic beloved JRPG. This YouTube video also previews the Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds documentary hitting Disney+ soon, and OD, the horror game with Jordan Peele as part of the creative team.
