Kojima Productions, the studio headed by director Hideo Kojima, celebrated its seventh anniversary on December 16, 2022. It used this opportunity to move its office to a larger floor in the same building, marking a new beginning. In a previous interview with IGN Japan, Kojima compared his previous office to Star Trek's USS Enterprise, and that concept has been carried over to this new location as well. The studio boasts an even bigger white room to house a new 1:1 scale Ludens statue, and you can sense Kojima's desire to set off into new creative waters in its spacious studio, photogrammetry room, and kitchen-lounge area that allows for large-scale socializing.
The studio is only gaining more momentum, releasing a teaser video for Death Stranding 2 [DS2] to the world at The Game Awards 2022 [TGA], the first one held in person in three years, and announcing a film adaptation of Death Stranding. Kojima Productions has been using its connections as it tirelessly runs forward, but where is it heading next? IGN Japan spoke to Kojima about the path taken by Kojima Productions so far and where it will be going from here.
IGN: Congratulations on seven years since the founding of Kojima Productions.
Hideo Kojima: Thanks. Actually, December 16 seven years ago was only the day that we officially registered the company. We started with nothing, no office and no equipment. I first borrowed a small room to use as a temporary office and put together proposals on my PC and smartphone. We moved into this building in May 2016.
IGN: It seems like you were working on making Death Stranding while putting together your studio.
Kojima: I wanted to get the word out quickly that I was making something, so I explained the project to Norman Reedus at a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles in February 2016, and then we created scans and performance capture, to release the first teaser at the beginning of June. That whole process happened at such an incredible speed.
We were able to rent space in this building a week before the teaser's release, but we didn't even have a room for meetings yet. Until December of that year, our daily morning meetings were held inside a small room at a cafe in this building, which we could use so long as we all ordered coffees.
Even for the Ludens logo, we didn't have computers, so I talked it over with Shin [Yoji Shinkawa], then we drew the concept on paper by hand and finished it at an acquaintance's design studio.
Generally speaking, only publicly traded companies are able to rent offices in this building, so we were turned down at first. We were only able to get in because one of the owners was a fan of my games. Even when it came to getting a bank loan, it was only possible because an executive at a major bank had played my games. We had absolutely nothing when we founded the company, and we've been able to come this far by way of our connections.
IGN: Do you remember any struggles you had or distress you experienced during that process?
Kojima: I don't recall ever feeling distressed. I was constantly anxious about whether people would really come to work with us, or if we'd be able to complete our game, but I had a sense of duty. Ultimately, I just had to do what I've always done, which is make games. I may not have had money or equipment, but I did things as I'd always done when making things at Konami. I stayed quick on my feet and looked for solutions on my own. It's a bit like making an independent movie.
For example, I made the handprints left in the beach in the first Death Stranding trailer out of wire, filming the previsualization in the shared hallway of the office we used before moving here. Other companies also used that hallway, though, so people would wonder what I could possibly be doing when they saw me.
It was the same when I first entered the games industry. When making the effect in Metal Gear Solid 2 where bird poop falls onto the lens, I went to the parking lot, took lots of pictures of pigeon droppings, and used them as reference. I also went out with a camera in a typhoon to record what the rain looked like. While I may have been in a new place, what I was doing was the same. In addition to the methodology of making games as a creator, I also had the management [production] knowhow of gathering people, funds, and technology to create a place for making things, which made it possible to start again from scratch. I think this is all thanks to the time I spent at Konami.
Lessons learned at Konami
IGN: Did your experiences at Konami play a big role in your path from the founding of Kojima Productions to today?
Kojima: I learned so many things at Konami. It was rare for a creator to work on both development and business, but I even worked as an executive there, and they thoroughly taught me everything down to how to run a business. Before I ever became a manager, I was in a department that developed MSX2 titles and came up with a proposal for a game called Snatcher. I didn't just want to make it for the MSX2, though. I also wanted to make an adventure game for the PC-8800 series, which allowed you to make more detailed graphics, and so I gave the proposal to my superior. We were the MSX2 department, of course, which meant we had no development tools for the PC-8800 series and no outlets we could sell to, but somehow I received approval. When I told the development staff, they asked me, "So how exactly are we going to make this, Kojima?" I went to the electronics district and looked for development tools. It was a company willing to leave things to people who took action themselves and under their own risk.
Originally, I was just coming up with projects as a director, but that meant I never got to know what my budget was, I couldn't choose the release dates or become involved in promotion, and even if I said I needed more help I wouldn't get more people assigned to me. I didn't even have a say in what my staff were being paid. I knew things couldn't keep going this way, and that's when Mr [Kagemasa] Kozuki [Chairman of Konami] allowed me to run a company. In 1996 we rented a floor in Yebisu Garden Place and formed a group company called KCE Japan, where I was able to be a manager and a producer as well. Up until that point, even if I said I wanted to work with [designer] Kyle Cooper, nobody else in the company would know who he was and I'd simply be told no. If you're producing your own games, though, you get budgeted money so long as you're able to provide numbers and predict what sales will be. It gave me an incredible amount of freedom when creating games.
IGN: Was Mr Kozuki's presence a major factor for you, then?
Kojima: I even have Mr. Kozuki to thank for me being able to create here at Kojima Productions. 9/11 took place in 2001 right before the release of Metal Gear Solid 2. We'd just sent off the master, but the game featured both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It seemed impossible to release the game. I was called to the board of directors and they all turned pale when I explained the situation. Nobody would tell me what to do, with the exception of Mr. Kozuki, who tackled the issue.
As I thought about what to do, I went to speak with Mr. Kozuki about possibly quitting the company. That's when he told me: 'When this game comes out and society has their say about it, they'll be talking about you, its creator, and me, the person who sold it. I doubt they'll say anything about anyone else. What will you do? I'm ready for whatever happens.'
When I heard how far he was willing to go, I made the firm decision that we'd release it together. The rest is history.