Hideo Kojima Interview with Metal Gear Solid 4 Afterthoughts

243w ago - In a recent interview, video gaming's living legend Hideo Kojima speaks out on what went wrong with the development of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Now, this is a pretty long interview, and despite picking out only select lines, it's still pretty long, so prepare for some quote spammage. This is quite a read, but it's Hideo Kojima, people. Hideo. Kojima. Read on.

You remember how Guns of the Patriots was delayed? Kojima explains that this was due to unfamiliarity with the hardware of the PlayStation 3. The transition from MGS2 and MGS3 was pretty easy because they were working on the same platform, but MGS4 was a different story:

MGS3 this wasn't so difficult -- we were working on the same platform as before, and I could pretty much just let the staff continue doing what they learned working on MGS2.

With MGS4, however, we were once again dealing with new hardware, and it really pushed us. [...] I let the staff work like it had on MGS3, and we came to a point where we had problems, which I should have recognized earlier.

Because of this, it was the first time we delayed a major game. This hadn't happened before with an MGS game, and it was all due to those problems.

And, if you got the game's limited edition and watched the behind-the-scenes footage, you'd have seen Kojima having an argument with the game's technology director. Kojima explains this as well, saying that:

The reason I got so frustrated wasn't necessarily about the technology but more about the mentality -- making the impossible possible. If you don't think you can do that, what are you doing making games?

If you only do what you think you can do, then you'll work on a normal schedule, using normal technology, and nobody's going to be surprised with the end result. Some of the staff didn't make the big leap that I expected, and that was what I was frustrated with.

After all this, he believes that the team will have an easier time with Metal Gear Solid 5. Kojima actually has his own ideas for the game already, but wouldn't share them with the team. Why, you ask? Well, it's because if he did, then he'd have to work on the project, and you know he already said MGS4 was his last (his last one - for real).

I have three concepts for MGS5 already. What would be ideal for me with MGS5, though, is that we don't do those. If the team picks one of those concepts, I have to get involved again, which I don't want to do.

There are already so many good ideas from the staff, so if we select one of those, that would be really good. At that point I could really rely on them and take the step back to be the producer, which is the ideal situation, I think.

However, he actually sounds like he can't help but be involved, and that would suit his fans just fine. So what are his ideas for the next game? He gives a hint:

I want to create something new, and it's difficult to explain since no one's seen it before. I don't know if it would sell very well. I've been warming this up for a long time, and I keep thinking that I'll try this idea. But ideas always change, so I really don't know what the final outcome will be.

To read the full interview, follow the source link above.