At the Xbox and Bethesda showcase, Hideo Kojima announced he is teaming up with Xbox for his next project. Here’s why this is important for gamers.
Many exciting things happened at the Xbox and Bethesda Livestream, but one of the most surprising reveals was Hideo Kojima’s partnership with Xbox for his next project. This unexpected news promises some high-caliber possibilities. It is well-known in the gaming community that Kojima and his projects are wholly original in their approaches to the gaming experience. In the Metal Gear Solid series and his most recent game, Death Stranding, Kojima continually surprised players with brand-new innovations and concepts. Mostly, this was to the benefit of PlayStation players. The hope is that he will bring the same kind of innovation over to Xbox.
Kojima is best known for his wonderfully poignant, often humorous and thought-provoking Metal Gear Solid series. He introduced the world to the tactical soldier with a penchant for hiding in cardboard boxes, Solid Snake. Along with this chain-smoking man of action, Kojima also introduced the world to a revolutionary stealth-based series that immersed players in a way that hadn’t been done before.
Enemies in the Metal Gear Solid series could spot your footprints in the snow and investigate disturbances. They could even spot or smell your cigarette smoke (if Snake chose to have a quick puff too close to them) and could be distracted by well-placed nude magazines. The game mechanics that Metal Gear Solid introduced were original, ridiculous and fun in equal measure. Many of those initial innovations are routinely used in countless other games.
After Metal Gear Solid‘s wild success, Kojima developed his own game studio called Kojima Productions. By doing this, the gaming auteur ensured for himself and his team virtually complete development freedom. With this freedom, Kojima dedicated all his time and efforts to his next project: Death Stranding.
A game that on the surface is a walking simulator, Death Stranding introduced new gaming mechanics to players. The game had a single-player campaign that saw players in control of Sam Porter, a courier in an American wasteland. In an attempt to make deliveries smoother, the player could build bridges over trenches, roads over long stretches of fields and also self-sustaining trade lockers. All of these structures could be seen and interacted with by other players. Over the course of the game, players online worked together to reconnect a broken America without actively interacting with one another.
Kojima’s games are often heavy with subtext, and they generally require multiple playthroughs to understand and appreciate all the nuances. Until this recent partnership announcement, Kojima had primarily been a name heavily associated with PlayStation. The exciting part of this team-up is looking forward to what kinds of new gaming mechanics, innovations and artistry Kojima can bring to Xbox. The possibility of new games, exclusives or entire franchises is terrific. His partnership with Xbox is one to keep an eye on, but for now, there is only excited speculation.