Is Kojima still relevant?

Hey.... Was just reading how Kojima is relocating his studio and it dawned on me that I haven't played a game of his I've really liked in a long time.

MGS1 was a masterpiece. Loved every bit of it and at its time felt in another class with all other games. From there you could argue fair points about the other mgs games being superb, if not excellent. MGS5 had the series best gameplay, but as a game felt slightly underwhelming.

Fast forward to today and Kojima has put out two games across 7 years (mgs5 and Death Stranding). I am unfamiliar of anything new or relevant he is working on and so I have to ask.... Is the sun setting on Kojima? Perhaps his approach doesn't resonate any longer? Perhaps he has run short of fresh ideas for compelling new gameplay?

Does the sun set on our favorite developers? Are we in the twilight of Kojima career? Why? Why not?

He will always have a following but Death Stranding diminished his reputation.

The game itself in reality is actually well received and sold well.

But it was marred prior to release by gaming media propping him up as modern-Jesus, and Hideo himself coming across as abit of a prick.

So when it comes out and doesn't change the world as we know it, a marmite love it or hate it game, the hounds were let off the leash.

Eh, DS was the freshest and riskiest thing I've seen out of the AAA space for a loooooooong time. Doesn't have the mass appeal that his games had at their height, but surprisingly still did really well nonetheless.

Even MGSV being as lopsided as it is, would still take that over most of what AAA is churning out.

Think he still has it for sure. Probably just needs to make a more familiar type of game to make waves again, but tbh that's not what I want. Give me more weird shit that I haven't played before plz.

No.

Death Stranding was awful and overhyped by everyone else while disappointing a huge chunck of his fanbase... he will always be fondly remember by MGS but as of now, he is a one trick pony.

He is still relevant but I am no longer excited by his content. He lost me when he lost MGS. And death stranding was just boring.

Who?

I think Kojima is still relevant. I skipped MGS5 because of all of the bad things that I heard about it but I'm sure it's not that bad. I skipped Death Stranding too because it seemed too weird but it reviewed and sold well. I'll pick it up at some point and make a judgment on it for myself. It's a beautiful game, though.

A niche divisive new IP like Death Stranding sold 5 million copies (i.e. $250-300 million) off Kojima's name recognition alone... If that's not relevant, then I don't know what is.

However, Kojima is 58 years old now and has been making video games for 36 years (since 1986)... He might want to follow Miyamoto's lead at some point and step back from the director role, handing it over to younger staff while supervising from the back.

i'd definitely be interested in anything new from him. mgsv had some issues - bloat, length, repetition, not the most memorable locales to name just a few, but at it's heart was a barnstorming open ended stealth espionage game. it's near peerless from a pure gameplay perspective in that space. dishonored 1 and 2 are ballpark the only thing that gives it a run for its money.

yeah fair way of putting it. the pretentious and confusing marketing, the general grotesqueness of the premise, and the mainstream unfriendly concept all combined to sour a lot of people against it and him. and again, like mgsv it had plenty of faults, but when it was good it was super absorbing, very clever and one of the most stylish games i've played. frustratingly missed the mark with stealth, huge missed opportunity given the creator, and that could've really elevated it into something special for me, instead of just good and memorable. but definitely need to encourage creativity like that in the tepid aaa space, even if it is a bit bat shit crazy

His games still sell quite well, so I would say yes. I do not care about his games like I did with ZotE and MGS 1-4, but there are still millions who do.

Nope!

Kenji Inafune (Megaman creator) is more irrevent as a developer than Hideo Kojima ever was even if some of the latter's works received mixed reception among critics and gamers.

I do not know if you are joking or not, but anyone who is a dedicated gamer and follows the industry would know who is Hideo Kojima.

....of course. DS was awesome

I find it a bit absurd to say he isn't just because he isn't to your liking. He's still around, and gaming journalists and the industry still get down on their knees and say "yes daddy" to him. Especially Geoff Keighley.

Oh yeah, the relevance part. Sure, why not?

Every game he makes reviews well, sells well, gathers a large fanbase, is always in the goty nominees/winners, etc. < Bunch of shite I don't care about tbh, not indicative of quality, but if that's not relevant in this industry then what is?

Be one thing if he hadn't put out a game in ages, but DS dropped like two and half years ago.

He’s still certainly relevant to me. Still would like to play Death Stranding one day but I did very much enjoy Metal Gear Solid 5. I get a kick out of the wacky stuff he tends to put in his games.

Yes

Death Stranding Director's Cut did a lot of QoL improvements to the original game. Much better.

I've always been attracted to the weird and quirky stuff in his games.

I played Death Stranding just because Kojima made it and it was surprisingly fun.

Could've used more npc camps or something in the world to encourage exploration though

Of cours he is relevant. What kind of person would be able to sell millions of Fedex Delivery Service Simulator? I am just not a fan of his last two titles. I want something more serious from him. Don't want to be peeing on mushrooms and shit.

I've been playing MGS2 the past couple days. The PS3 HD version. I am reminded of how probably the best title in the series actually played, with the stealth elements, and how different the series has become since. While MGS5 is an okay game on it's own, it's no Metal Gear game IMO. The series died a while ago, and we're just reskinning generic third person games with Metal Gear lore and characters.

Nah, I don't think Kojima is relevant anymore. I couldn't care less what he makes at this point, nor could you give him sole credit for the better titles in the series. There were large teams working on those, and I'd imagine most of those developers, artists, writers, etc did the most of the work. They're probably gone now, and because of that we've seen a big shift in the story.

Nope, Kojima is the God of videogame development.

and to be honest he only makes games every now and then anyways

MG - 1987

MG2 - 1990

MGS1 - 1998

MGS2 - 2001

MGS3 - 2004

MGS4 - 2008

MG:PW - 2010

MGSV - 2015

Death Stranding - 2019

We can't really expect anything from Kojima until 2023-2025 anyways

No.

Nope, doesn't ring a bell but he sounds like a conman or a hack. Is he?

Who? :P

I guess? He made DS and that sold well. His next game will probably sell well too.

He's irrelevant for me though. Always has been.

Well 2023 is only 8 months away...

Yes, he will always be relevant. People in the industry have spent years pretending to see the emperor's invisible clothes and they're not about to do or say anything that will force them to reconcile their past stances on his works.

Despite the timely output I think he'll maintain a strong working relationship with Sony. For now whether or not he can spin gold is irrelevant, just getting him onto something that will be exclusive to the platform will offer Sony lots of hype for the platform. And when he delivers, whatever it will be, it'll get praised to high heaven. And if it doesn't, well, they could certainly benefit from any hype that is generated along the way.

@me2002: That's true. But if Kojima takes as long between DS and his next project as he did with PW and MGS5, then we can't expect anything until 2024. And if we exclude PW, (mobile game) it was technically 7 years between MGS4 (2008) and MGS5 (2015).

We definitely should have heard something by now. It has been what, 2.5 years since Death Stranding?

Death stranding sucked imo. It’s just not interesting to play.

He's still relevant.

That being said, the last game I enjoyed from him was MGS3: Subsistence. I have yet to play DS but it doesn't really appeal to me.