Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding was 'too unique', OD's going to be 'completely different', but Physint's an espionage game so 'you can make it in your sleep'

It's been a busy old year for Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions, with the release of Death Stranding 2 earlier this year (the inevitable PC version is yet to be given a release date), two film adaptations of the series—one live action, one animated—in the works, as well as an anime being cooked up at Disney+. Oh yeah, there's also the three other games the company has in development: horror title OD, espionage game PhysInt, and an untitled collaboration with Niantic (of Pokemon GO fame).

Kojima's been doing a round of interviews to see out the year, and the latest with the Japanese outlet Ananweb sees him reflecting on all of these game projects. As ever, Kojima says he doesn't think of Death Stranding 2 as "finished" because "I actually wanted to continue until around September."

Kojima says that the studio's games "have to be unique and sell to a certain extent. This is difficult. Our previous game, Death Stranding, was too unique, so we had to carefully adjust the balance to broaden the audience for this one." The example he gives is a snowy mountain that's twice as high as anything in the previous game:

"When we gathered monitors and played it for the first time, everyone fell from the top of the mountain to the bottom. Once you fall, you just keep rolling, so most people were angry," laughs Kojima. "When I checked it out, it felt like you had to go and stop over and over again, like taking three steps and taking a 10-second break, before finally climbing up. To me, this was the best, but I realized it just wasn't good enough. We should have made a separate mode for that, but in the end, I'm glad that many people enjoyed it."

Kojima Productions held a 10th anniversary celebration on September 23, during which the studio offered some updates on its other projects. The man himself is in his favourite mode: teasing away with promises and hints.

As regards OD, on which Kojima Productions is collaborating with Microsoft, Kojima says "you might think it's a standard horror game, but it's something completely different. I can't say what it is yet, and I don't know if it will work. We've made games that haven't been done before, like games where you can't be found or games where you have to make deliveries, but the system is the same as other games… There are lots of hints hidden in the trailer, so if you think about it long enough you might figure it out."

That may sound like something different, but not so with PhysInt. "Because it's an espionage game, you can make it in your sleep," laughs Kojima. "For example, there's a soldier who infiltrates, and when he's discovered by the enemy he's attacked, and when he takes them out one by one he uses sneaking... No matter how it plays out, it's fun and easy to make."

Kojima says PhysInt will have "new gimmicks" and pursue one of his pet obsessions, crossing "the line between film and game." Most interestingly, "we're thinking of working with filmmakers not only in terms of cast but also staff, but we wonder how it will turn out. Times are changing so quickly these days that the social structures and themes I'm trying to depict in the game may soon become a reality."

Quite: we live in a world after all where you can buy a Death Stranding exoskeleton. Kojima ends with a brief fantasy about "a life where I make the best-selling product, earn money, and then go back to work after a long time and ask, 'How's everyone doing?'" That does make him sound a little like the Fonz, but Kojima's point is "it's not my job to make the best-selling product, and I don't know what to do when I'm at home with nothing to do." Still, we needn't worry about him retiring anytime soon: "I want to keep working with my hands forever."