While Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima’s works can often blur the line between games and film, it looks like Kojima Productions is finally fully taking the plunge into filmmaking. Kojima told BBC Newsbeat in a documentary about the development of Death Stranding that “In the future Kojima Productions will start making films.”
Kojima then went on to explain that he believes video games will adopt the streaming format like movies and television have, and that since all of these mediums will be available in the same place, a “new format of game” will emerge that incorporates elements of everything. Tackling different mediums may prove difficult, but Kojima believes “if you can do one thing well, then you can do everything well.”
Death Stranding already breaks so many traditional conventions that we see in practically every new game released today, and because of that, it has been incredibly divisive amongst those who have played it. Some lauded the game’s unique ideas and storytelling methods while others loathed the deliberately frustrating and slow gameplay loop. We talked at length about Death Stranding, it’s mechanics, and whether or not games necessarily have to be fun on the most recent episode of the Spectator Mode Podcast, so be sure to give that a listen if you’re hungry for more Death Stranding discussion before the game releases on November 8.
When it comes to Kojima and film, all of his games are packed to the brim with lengthy cutscenes that sometimes exceed an hour in length. Metal Gear Solid 4 holds not one, but two world records in regards to cutscenes: longest cutscene in a video game and longest cutscene sequence in a video game.
The longest cutscene clocks in at 27 minutes, and that cutscene is a part of a longer sequence of cinematics that runs for 71 minutes. That sequence alone is almost long enough to be a feature-length film (and the total cutscene runtime in that game amounts to more than four feature-length runtimes), so Kojima and his team shouldn’t find too much difficulty transitioning to film. Blending the mediums, however, might prove to be a bit more difficult, especially considering the criticism his games have received for sometimes being more movie than game.
Death Stranding will be released for PlayStation 4 on November 8. The game is also coming to PC next summer.
