Will We Ever See His Take on the Genre?
In film criticism there’s a term called Auteur Theory: basically, it’s the idea that the director is the “author” of the film, the most important creative voice, and that you can tell a film’s director by their trademarks. You know when you’re watching a movie by Tim Burton, or Guillermo Del Toro, or Park Chan-wook. When we’re talking about gaming, Hideo Kojima would inarguably be one of the biggest auteurs around.
Sadly, Kojima has never quite managed to break free from the Metal Gear shackles. After being drawn back to the series time and time again, his first attempt at a big game after definitively leaving the franchise behind was Silent Hills – a horror game that was famously, and tragically, canceled during production, despite having all the potential to be the greatest in the series. His next game, Death Stranding, was critically adored but never quite hit the same mark with audiences, but fans have still been wondering: What will Kojima do next?
Luckily, it looks like Kojima still has some interest in creating a straight-up horror game: apart from rumors that he’s involved in a potential Silent Hill reboot, legendary horror mangaka – and art director of Silent Hills – Junji Ito came forward with claims that he was collaborating with Kojima on a new project. While Ito clarified that this was a potential collaboration almost immediately, it’s clear that Kojima still wants to find a way to scare us.
The latest rumour about Kojima’s horror ambitions? That he was working on an episodic title for the Google Stadia. While they recently closed down their internal studios, reports of what happened to Kojima’s game have been mixed, with some claiming that Google passed on a collaboration while others state that it was in the works, then canceled. Now, Google have come forward to confirm that they were never working on a game with Hideo Kojima – horror or otherwise – and as such didn’t cancel one.
#”We talk to partners all the time in situations that don’t result in a project or even a proposal. This is very common. Speculating that two parties that speak regularly in this industry leads to proposals or otherwise, is inaccurate,” said a Google spokesperson.
It’s a tumultuous time for the streaming service, and turning down a game from one of the industry’s most beloved directors would only raise questions about their understanding of the industry they’re trying so hard to break into. Sadly, we still need to wait to see Kojima take on the horror genre full-throttle, but hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.
Do you think Kojima would make a good horror game? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.