Hideo Kojima always wanted to make movies. According to the man himself, 70% of his body is made of them. So how did he end up becoming one of gaming’s first, and greatest, auteurs? 

As a child, Kojima was obsessed with watching movies. It was through his father, Kingo Kojima, that Hideo developed both this love for film and the anti-war sentiment that would take centre stage throughout his future work. His father’s death when he was just 13 is also perhaps why fathers play such prominent roles in his work. 

Despite having ambitions to become a film director, Kojima decided in his fourth year of college to join the game industry, joining Konami’s home computer division MSX in 1986 and releasing his first game, Metal Gear, a year later. Kojima’s early games were critically acclaimed in Japan, with him releasing a sequel to Metal Gear, as well as Snatcher and Policenauts (Snatcher’s spiritual successor), the latter of which he calls his “independent film” compared to the “blockbuster” Metal Gear franchise. 

It was with the release of Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation in 1998 that Kojima truly became internationally famous in the gaming community. It is hard to overstate just how groundbreaking Metal Gear Solid was upon its release in 1998, as it managed to reconceptualise the stealth-action genre and pushed the boundaries between games and cinema in a way that had been envisioned, but never fully committed to, before. With the game’s success, Kojima had already cemented himself as a master of his craft. 

Throughout the 2000’s Kojima directed, designed, produced and wrote a slew of Metal Gear games, including the original Metal Gear Solid trilogy, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of The Patriots, which are often cited individually as some of the greatest games ever made. He also produced the oft-forgotten Zone of The Enders series. After the release of 2015’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (MGS:V), Kojima left Konami and formed Kojima Productions. 

This new studio’s first game was 2019’s Death Stranding, which declared itself the world’s first “strand-type” game. In true Kojima fashion, Death Stranding was incredibly prescient, with its themes of connection and isolation bearing eerie similarities to the COVID-19 pandemic that happened a year later. Kojima is currently collaborating with A24 to make a Death Stranding film adaptation, finally fulfilling his childhood dream of making movies. This will not be the first time he has worked with film directors. In 2014 he was collaborating with Guillermo Del Toro on a new Silent Hill game, Silent Hills, until the project was cancelled, which remains a tremendous loss for both the horror genre and the industry at large.  

Kojima’s popularity has only skyrocketed in recent years, with many having heard his name, even if they are not familiar with his work. He regularly posts to his social media accounts, either documenting and reviewing the films he’s watched, the celebrities he’s met, or just pictures of what he is doing on a day-to-day basis. Today he is as well known for his eccentricity and online presence as he is for his groundbreaking fiction. 

It is a hugely exciting time for Kojima and fans of his work. Upcoming releases for Kojima Productions include Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, OD (a horror game that softens the blow of Silent Hills being cancelled) and PhysInt, which marks Kojima’s first venture into the stealth-action genre since MGS:V and, according to Kojima, will be the “culmination of his work”. It seems like the best is yet to come.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons