Hideo Kojima and Xbox
The rumors that Hideo Kojima wanted to work on an Xbox exclusive game do not stop and on the contrary, they are taking shape more and more. The latest news on the subject, which we report today, comes from the ever prolific Jeff Grubb, Venture Beat journalist for the Games section and well-known insider, who has already proved to be very reliable in the past given his contacts with the whole world of videogames and with a small eye towards Microsoft.A marriage between Hideo Kojima and Xbox has been talked about for some time. That something in the production studios owned by the well-known game designer is now obvious and it is difficult for the development team to have only work on Death Stranding Director's Cut in the last two years. Yoji Shinkawa, concept artist and friend of the designer, on the other hand, has already exposed himself on the matter, declaring several months ago that the studio was working on a new project. Now Grubb raises, stating that Xbox is now finalizing the deal. “We have reached the point where it cannot be unsigned,” the reporter's words declared during an episode of the GameBeat podcast.
That Hideo Kojima is close to Xbox, at this point, is very likely. And it would also fall within the plans of Microsoft and Phil Spencer: the game designer would not be ready for a 100% acquisition but most likely, as stated by Grubb in the past, the goal of the Redmond house would be to be able to bind to Japanese developers. , always lacking on the platform to push their consoles and services more and more in the Rising Sun.
Clearly at the moment it is really difficult to understand what Hideo Kojima is working on. The game designer has always wanted to work on a horror game but we don't know if this will be the nature of his project. According to Grubb, the next project would make significant use of the cloud, a hypothesis also supported by the hiring of Kim Swift, who previously worked on the creation of Valve games such as Portal and Left 4 Dead. If this is really the case, we will find out in the coming months, when the agreement will be defined and everything will be ready for a reveal of historical importance.
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Hideo Kojima's Xbox project might be an interactive cloud film-game
Hideo Kojima is reportedly in negotiations to make a new game for Xbox, and it might help kick off Microsoft's new cloud games.
It looks like Kojima's experimental new horror game-film hybrid has found a home at Microsoft. Stadia design director Kim Switch recently joined Microsoft to help lead new cloud gaming initiatives, namely courting studios to work on titles specifically for Project xCloud. Sources tell Games Beat that Kojima is one of the various devs being courted for xCloud's new push and that Kojima had previously pitched a game to Stadia.
Kojima has expressed interest in cloud streaming for a while now and has a few ideas for his new project. After P.T., Kojima says he wants to make a new interactive horror game using the cloud as the delivery system. His comments suggest the project will be a game/film hybrid similar to something like Bandersnatch with more interactivity, possibly with AI-based randomization or procedurally-generated scenarios.
'I want to do a horror game and interactive mediums are really a good match. I think it could be much scarier than movies if it's on an interactive platform,' Kojima said in a Rocket Beans interview from 2019.
'I want to create a horror game, but I don't have this good solution to [being able to look away when things get scary]. For P.T., I wanted to create something that everyone really shares. But if you're too scared you won't play, right? I want to challenge the horror genre and solve this problem.'
'I really want to do something a little different. In the next five years, the platform will be streaming. I think there's something ahead, and I'm thinking about that. It's a movie, but it's a game...I'm thinking of that kind of idea and I want to do that kind of thing,' Kojima said during a BAFTA panel in 2019.
More recently, Kojima says he is re-thinking his creative process after COVID-19 and gives some clues on what his next project will be like.
'I can't really say specifically [what the new project is]. It won't be like the past, it won't be one step at a time. It's a drastic change. Just like after 9/11, we have to adapt and think about new ways of creating, as entertainment can't fall behind.
'I have to think about what's going to happen in the future. If it was something like an alien coming into my game, it wouldn't matter much about the current state of the world. We could just make up any concept or idea.
'But I always want to put some societal elements as a base into the game to introduce the players to what's happening and maybe they'll think about it. Of course all the while still be entertaining.
'With this speed of change, I need to really consider which prediction I make and which way I introduce ideas to the player.'