I understand that sometimes you have to make a decision based on what’s best for business but Death Stranding scoring an 83 on Open Critic, selling enough copies to still be profitable and the simple fact that Kojima is one of the industry’s few legends, Sony should have green lit his next game regardless of what it’s going to be.
With that said, Sony’s loss is going to be a massive gain for Microsoft and the Xbox brand, especially in Japan. I’m not Kojima’s biggest fan (his last game I completed was MGS 2) and didn’t play Death Stranding but as weird as his games have become, he’s one of the best in the industry and doesn’t follow any rules except for his own and while his next game will most likely not be for me, im still hyped and excited to see what in the world he comes up with especially since it’s going to be using the Cloud in some form or function which in of itself is why Sony should have green lit this project because good or bad, it’s going to be something that few games are - unique, original and innovative.
With a little luck, im hoping to see the contract be legally finalized and that when Microsoft holds their showcase at the Tokyo Game Show in September, they introduce him on stage if live or on screen if recorded to officially announce that he’s signed an exclusive game contract (perhaps even multi-game exclusive contract) with Microsoft for the Xbox eco-system.
Apparently that petition was some bs fanboy trolling. Really, it sounds like it.
But yeah, the sentiment about that Kojima deal and even the Bloober team’s Silent Hill project is clear as day. It appears we have some armchair Game directors now.
I’m moderately excited for both games. I want to see a trailer or something, but even if they were PS5 exclusives, I would be genuinely happy that these two projects were being made. We don’t know how lucky we are to have projects like these being made today.
I mean, even Dead Space is back…crazy times. I hope that’s a trend.
His cloud comments specifically referenced Stadia when he teased work on tapping into cloud’s potential with his latest project, and a few months after those comments were made he said the project he was working on was the scariest horror game ever. He also specified that the potential of cloud gaming taking off was to allow devs like him more freedom to experiment. From context, it is clear his Stadia pitch was for a cloud-based horror game, and that is what Grubb says MS picked up (an that is supported very strongly by the Kim Swift hire since that is who Kojima was discussing the project with at Google).
Google said they never signed a deal with Kojima nor were they announcing any imminent deal with him at the time of their PR statement. They did not deny that he pitched them a cloud based game which they turned down. Also, other elements of that leak have been confirmed since (there was a music game by Harmonix that has shifted to be multiplat now that it isn’t under Stadia’s 1P). Why would either Grubb or Schreier have heard anything about what happens at Stadia? o.0
KojiPro is working in some minimal capacity on DS: Director’s Cut, but you referenced claims that ‘most’ of the studio was involved which is not probable at all.
Yeah, people just want to have some fun on the internet, but then it backfires sometimes.
I saw screencaps of the twitter account that seemingly made the petition and he was some Xbox fanboy. I don’t want to delve to much into it, but this kind of petition made by one person is just trolling material most of the time.
This seems super unlikely to me. DS did not merely land on 83 MC, it got roasted in major reviews for being a horrible game, some scoring it below 5/10. Some reviewers literally found it a chore and painful to endure playing through. Sony funded it as a trial for KojiPro (most likely) to see if he was worth buying and I’ wager they straight denied him a DS sequel. It did not sell to the level they expected for a major, AAA, hugely marketed 1P title on a machine with 100mil users. The whole ‘it was profitable’ is also a bit of PR since that probably doesn’t include marketing costs, which usually can be half the overall budget for a game like DS.
Sony does not care about industry ‘legends’. Their upper management chased off Ueda as they shifted to becoming super risk averse in their 1P output. That is the polar opposite environment Kojima would want to be tied up with. That is likely why he felt Stadia was the best alternative to go to first. He would not do that unless Sony denied him the ability to make his next game under their banner.
I do agree it would be a big get for MS both as a huge PR win wrt Kojima+Xbox but also could be a huge boon to Japanese support for xCloud, which is the best avenue for more Eastern support on the platform imho (since home consoles are dead in Japan but mobile dominates). Additionally, if Kojima really can make a hugely innovative cloud based game, it will be a huge boon to cloud gaming and xCloud on its own too.
Okay I have something to add to the conversation here. Back in November I had a Twitter post that got some online attention. The Sony people kept talking about how it was staged but it was 100% not staged. I make no secret that I prefer Xbox but to them that was proof that I must be trolling them.
That’s really unfortunate, but yeah, they are pretty sensitive about that stuff, it’s no joke.
I mean there are real trolls out there and there are people who are genuine but get tagged as trolls or fanboys for whatever reasons, but mostly because that doesn’t fit their narrative.
My nieces love anime and Nintendo games, but between PS and Xbox, they prefer Xbox because I introduced them to it. They grew up with Viva Pinata and Minecraft. Sometimes, that’s as simple as that.
He’s a terrible writer and cinematographer. His cutscenes are way too tedious and boring with no sense of dynamism. Which is funny since he’s always wanted to a movie director, but he would be absolutely terrible at it. His forte is actually gameplay and level design. MGS V’s gameplay and sandbox is masterfully designed. Everything else? Eh…
Just wondering, has anyone else of all these insiders mentioned this? It’s just a bit odd if only Jeff is talking about it. Not that I doubt it, I think he’s right but you know.
One of the more telling things for me personally was when his close friend Geoff Keighley interviewed him during the Summer Game Fest thing and asked him about his future plans in general, and Kojima talked about really looking at a big bet/change on where gaming is going to be heading and such. His response would line up with the Xbox rumors and possible use of cloud technology and/or Xbox Game Pass distribution models to support new big ideas.
