Top 10 interesting facts about Hideo Kojima, the most famous Japanese developer

December 16, 2023 will mark 8 years since Kojima Production was founded. Let’s not forget that Hideo left Konami in 2015 and opened his own studio. She has already released Death Stranding and is currently working on the sequel and a mysterious project known as OD. And in this article, on the occasion of the anniversary of the studio of the cult developer, we have collected interesting facts about Kojima.

Original Metal Gear from 1987 is Hideo Kojima’s very first project to be released. And this is one of the few games in history to have two official sequels at the same time. Released on the NES in April 1990 The snake’s revenge. It was developed without Hideo’s participation and was unsuccessful. That’s why the publisher, Konami, decided to release a second part of the cult stealth action game, but under the direction of Kojima. Are Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released on July 20, 1990 and is considered canon today.

Original Metal Gear Solid emerged in the second half of the 1990s, when developers were just starting to experiment with fully three-dimensional environments. It was not always clear to programmers and level designers how this or that level functions in the game. And Kojima decided to recreate them with LEGO bricks. Such a visual demonstration of the environment helped his team. It’s curious that Hideo still takes a similar approach.

After the release of each new installment of Metal Gear Solid, Kojima stated that this was the last game in the series in which he was involved. Furthermore, Hideo wasn’t lying; it really seemed to him that that was all. But after a while the developer had new ideas and thoughts that he wanted to implement in a video game format.

In 2005, Hideo Kojima was approached by the then Wachowski brothers with a proposal to create a game based on The Matrix trilogy. It is speculated that they liked Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. Let us not forget that in this remake of the first part, time dilation was actively used, as in the battle scenes with the participation of Neo. However, it did not go further than talking.

Many people know that Kojima is a big movie buff. But few people know that the list of his favorite films includes Soviet and Russian films. Among them are 1967’s “Viy,” “Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel,” “Leviathan” and “Hard to Be a God” (2013).

The “Kojima is a genius” meme became popular in 2015, shortly after its release Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and the publication of a video of the same name by blogger Gufovsky. And after Hideo’s forced departure from Konami and its closure Silent Hills’ words about his genius became, in a way, support for the developer. It is noteworthy that it is Russian-speaking users who use this wording. Our compatriots write “Genius” in Cyrillic under the posts of each game designer on social networks. Hideo himself sincerely does not understand why he is so popular in Russia. In the West in the early 2000s, another meme was widespread: “Kojima is God.”

Although Russian games journalist Anton Logvinov has repeatedly professed his love for Metal Gear Solid, he accused Hideo of plagiarism at E3 2008. According to him, the main musical theme of the second game in the series is reminiscent of the compositions “Troika” and “Winter Road” by Georgy Sviridov. Judging from the video, Kojima was truly amazed. In this case, however, this is a reproach to the composer Norihiko Hibino, who wrote the soundtrack for the second, third and fourth parts of MGS.

In Japan, arcade machines and home consoles became widespread in the mid-1980s. However, for years, working in the gaming industry was not considered a prestigious profession. To avoid awkward situations, Kojima lied to others and said he was a financier. But one day, one of his friends introduced Hideo to the guests at his wedding as a talented guy who plays video games for some reason. This caused loud laughter from those around him.

The hero of our article dreamed of becoming a cameraman since childhood. Already in high school he made his first attempts to make his own films. However, Hideo connected his life to games for many reasons. At the same time, a new division was opened in 2021, Kojima Production, specializing in film and music. Maybe we’ll see feature films from Hideo in the future.

In 2015, Canal Plus Group, which owns the rights to the film Escape from New York, planned to sue Hideo for plagiarism. However, Kojima was saved by personal connections. The film’s director, John Carpenter, intervened in the case and stopped Canal Plus management from filing a lawsuit. The reason seems funny: “Hideo is a good guy” (verbatim quote from an interview with The Hollywood Reporter).

Do you think Kojima is a genius? Or is his performance overrated in your opinion? Share your thoughts in the comments!