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Despite approaching 62 years old, Kojima could still pass for 50 – a jet-black mop of hair proves a stark contrast to a pair of pink Nike Air Prestos (the Acronym collab, for the sneakerheads) and a white Close film tee. He is a proud fan; if he likes what you do, he will wear it. As for his health ordeal, he has all but physically recovered – at least from what he lets on – but the impact of that period is permanent. He fantasises about his consciousness being transported into an AI, or becoming a cyborg. “Maybe I might find a vampire in Romania or something,” he jokes. “They bite me, I become one.”
This is all to say: Kojima knows the end is inevitable, so he is quickening his pace. “I might cry after I finish Death Stranding 2,” he says. “Maybe I won’t… I have the next project.” That would be OD, his Xbox-partnered collaboration with Jordan Peele, the American writer-director behind Get Out and Nope, and other like-minded creatives. After that, there is Physint, the Sony-exclusive espionage game being hailed as a return to Kojima’s Metal Gear roots, and A24's Death Stranding movie, which is set to be directed by A Quiet Place: Day One’s Michael Sarnoski. Sounds like a bucket list? It is. Kojima famously used to say he wanted to die watching movies. The last few years changed his mind: “I want to die making something.”
GQ: You talk about your time running out – how are you feeling about finishing Death Stranding 2?
Hideo Kojima: So-so. There are so many things I still want to change. I want, like, six more months. Today, I might be satisfied. But tomorrow, when I play the same place again, you have a different sense. I have to set the line myself, where I stop.
Have you always worked like this?
I can’t really say this, but there used to be a master [disc] and that was it. Now it’s like, OK, I’ll let it go this time and do it for a patch, or something.
You left Konami in 2015, and have been independent ever since. How do you feel about that 10-year milestone?
It was good, these 10 years. It was the most important time… What I am most afraid of is time. I am afraid of dying and having dementia. I am afraid of forgetting things when I get old. I am afraid that I won't even realise what I am forgetting. I became independent when I was 52. I’m 61 now. Also, there was Covid. I was trying to shoot the beginning scene of Death Stranding 2, where Léa [Seydoux] comes to you, in the spring of 2020. The game would’ve been released in 2023, but I couldn’t scan actors, I couldn’t do the new casting.
Your outlook on life has clearly changed since your illness. How’s your state of mind today?
I feel nervous. I feel rushed. I still have a lot of things I want to do – that I need to do. I thought I could do anything if I was independent, but the reality is that I can’t. I always think of other, more weird stuff to make. But if I do that, and it doesn’t sell, my studio will go bankrupt. I know all the staff. I know the families of the staff. I have this burden on my shoulders.
The thing you love doing most is also what you have the least time to do.
