The February 6, 2020 issue of Famitsu magazine (released on January 23) included a 30 pages feature on Kojima Productions for the 4th anniversary of the studio. The feature also included a 5 pages interview with Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa, who chatted about their history together and looked back on Death Stranding’s development. The interview would take us too long to summarize, but it mostly consisted of anecdotes Kojima already chatted about in the past. One of the new, fun stories Kojima shared is how he didn’t ask Shinkawa to work together with him at Kojima Productions, but Shinkawa naturally joined the studio. Because they always worked together. Shinkawa mentioned he definitely wants to keep participating in Kojima’s projects, and how Yoshitaka Amano, one of his mentors, advised him: “you should definitely stick with Kojima”.
Moreover, in the final part of the interview, Famitsu asked Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa about what kind of projects they would like to do next. They first mentioned they’d like to do a manga together. Shinkawa mentioned he likes being able to touch things directly, so an analog project like a manga would definitely be nice. He also joked that he has a harder time reading nowadays because of his eyesight getting worse.
Next, they mentioned how Death Stranding has a lot of different weapons, but few mecha, so Kojima wants to make something with mecha to give some mecha design work to Shinkawa. They mentioned how this could be an anime project, as it takes a lot of work, but would be slightly easier to do than a game project. Kojima also reiterated he wishes to make movies, including a movie with Shinkawa’s designs. Kojima and Shinkawa also shared the fact that while Death Stranding is considered to be a “weird” game, it’s very similar to what they’ve done in the past and they personally don’t think it’s weird. In fact, they feel the need to make much weirder games.
Next up, Kojima stated that Kojima Productions is planning to work on multiple game projects, one of which would be a “big” game. However, Kojima would also like to try doing smaller games, like episodic games and digital-only games. He’s unsure he’ll be able to manage that, but he hopes he’ll be able to develop and release smaller games while he keeps working on a bigger game project.
Lastly, Kojima ended the interview by repeating what he always says, how games and movies will change and merge. He mentioned how a lot of current 40+ years old movie directors were raised with games’ way of storytelling. He also mentioned Oscar Isaac recently came to play at Kojima Productions and he saw how much he respects video games. In conclusion, Kojima basically said that Death Stranding is probably the game that received the most praise in his career, but just like Metal Gear Solid, Boktai, or P.T. it had a lot of mixed reviews, so he still has room to improve.
Personally speaking, I’d rather wish games and movies don’t end up merging like Kojima wishes. I also think that among all the projects the duo mentioned, an anime project like a short OVA/movie would be the most likely and quickest project to be realized.
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Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/kojima-productions-shinkawa-tease-projects-famitsu-interview/
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