Tag Archives: kojima

Gabe Newell contradicts Kojima

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In a new interview with Gamasutra, Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson talk about their business strategy — or rather, their complete lack of business strategy, at Valve:

Gabe Newell: … our focus is really much on building something that’s cool, and then we’ll worry about monetization.  So we’re not going to worry about that until later.  Premature monetization is the root of all evil.

The entire 4-page interview is pretty much about how Valve refuses to give its employees titles, responsibilities, and how they generally don’t care about market research, but rather focus on simply recruiting people they want to work with and make stuff they think is cool.  This stands in contrast to what Hideo Kojima said previously about his experience with pitching ideas and creating projects, which was this:

Hideo Kojima:  Right now, it’s very similar to movies: You need a lot of money. So rather than doing what you want, doing what you like, you must have a clear idea of marketing and sales. That’s what’s happening to us with FOX Engine; you do not need be an expert in programming to develop a game, but if you have a question, you still need an expert on-hand to provide an answer.

Isn’t it sad that while Kojima — who already has his own production company — talks about how he needs marketing research and sales pitches, instead of being able to do what he wants, Valve is boasting about their “do-what-you-want” strategy and making millions of dollars of profit as a result?  This is exactly the kind of thing I examined in my Metal Gear Online vs Team Fortress 2 series, which I suggest you take a look at after you’re finished with the Newell interview [here].

I’ll conclude with another choice quote from Valve’s leader:

GN: Well, I think, at the end of the day, the challenge is to find exciting, worthwhile projects for smart people to do.  And then whether you’re doing it as an individual, whether you’re doing it as a small indie developer, or you’re doing it as a larger group, if you can answer that question you’re probably going to be successful.

Metal Gear supposed to have been a squad game

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The more I hear Kojima talk about his original ideas for Metal Gear games, the more glad I am he didn’t get his way.  According to his Twitter, the game was originally supposed to have been a team infiltration game, as in the old movie “Wild Geese” — which, like me, you’ve never heard of before.  The quote:

While I was working on “METAL GEAR”, I wanted to achieve an infiltration as a team like “Wild Geese” when the point of view was changed from “a game to escape” to “a special-force game to infiltrate.”  It is because there is no way to infiltrate alone.  However, at that time, one-man infiltration was the only option because of the game character and the restriction on the hardware.

Thank God for hardware restrictions, am I right?  It’s things like this that really make me question whether Kojima really should be allowed to do what he wants with game design!  Maybe being stuck working on a series he doesn’t like for 10 years was a good thing after all!

For what it’s worth, the plot of Wild Geese bears some similarity to the original game:

A British multinational seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge. [via IMDB]

A multinational mercenary special-forces leader who sends his men to rescue somebody and overthrow a military leader, only to betray and abandon them after their mission was carried out successfully?  Where have I heard that before?

Looking at the movie poster, I can’t help noticing a slight resemblance to the artwork for the MSX portraits as well…

Kojima, you only stole from the best.

Tweets: [1] [2] [3]

The Wisemen’s Committee

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Have you been paying attention to the news lately?

President Johnson: The Patriots — even I don’t know who the actual members are. Are they financial, political, or military leaders? No one knows who the Patriots really are. Even my instructions come from a cut-out. All I’ve been told is that every key decision is made by a group of twelve men known as the Wisemen’s Committee.

Is Kojima a prophet or what?

Thanks to John from Snake Soup forums for comparing the FOX News image [here]

The Ninja As A Deus Ex Machina Phenomena

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The Ninja As a Deus Ex Machina Phenomena

We’re once again honored to have Mad Jackyl present us with a great article about the Metal Gear series — this time about how the recurring ninja character serves the plot of the games. The article is below the jump, so read on and please enjoy!

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So it’s E3? Settle down, people.

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Another year, another E3 to get all excited about, right?

Well… Yes and no.

Yes, there’s the possibility that we’ll see awesome games, consoles and innovations; Nintendo supposedly has a new console to reveal, and of course Kojima Productions will have its own spotlight, even if the man who the company is named after is shunning the event. Some think that Sony and Microsoft will also reveal their plans for new consoles, even if it’s basically just a concept. So there could be sweet news!

But as my old grand-uncle William Shakespeare used to say: all that glimmers is not gold. There’s also the harsh reality that businesses love making huge promises that ultimately become stupid disappointments. If you’re the kind of person who is satisfied by simply having something new to speculate about (a stance I’ve been known to take), then it’s probably a win-win situation. But please, if you’re going to speculate, do it right: balance your hype with some criticism and realism, okay? 70% of all new ideas are garbage.

MGS4: Sold Out Part 2: War is Routine

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(This article has been updated on May 31, 2011 for your enjoyment)

PART 2: War is Routine

Old Snake: War has changed. It’s no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity. It’s an endless series of proxy battles fought by mercenaries and machines. War – and its consumption of life – has become a well-oiled machine.

Obvious Reason

When the first game trailers were being shown, it was a shock for many to see that the setting of Metal Gear Solid 4 was the Middle East, and more shocking yet to hear the commentary of Snake about war being “routine”. What could such a thing mean? It wasn’t the same stylish, “cool” Metal Gear world we had seen before: it was desolation and massacre for no good reason. For literally the first time ever, there was no enemy stronghold to infiltrate, no big scary dude with a Metal Gear threatening the world. Indeed, we were sneaking into an actual battlefield, a neutral agent passing through somebody else’s pointless war. Why would Kojima break his successful formula for something as bleak and complex as that?

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Knee and back pain simulator in the works for KojiPro?

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According to recent tweets it seems Kojima Productions may be developing some kind of new, next-gen pain simulator.

Although we cannot confirm that it will be a pain simulator at this point, there are plenty of juicy details to feed your active imaginations. Kojima has revealed some following tidbits:

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