Key Takeaways
- Hideo Kojima is a rare breed in gaming, one of the medium’s few “auteurs.”
- Dragon Age creative director acknowledges that it takes a studio to make a game, but Kojima has earned the title.
- There few that can match Kojima’s reputation in the industry.
Hideo Kojima’s reputation in gaming is unmatched. There aren’t many ‘household names’ in gaming because players tend to associate games with studios, rather than individuals. In most cases, this is the correct way of thinking as hundreds, if not thousands, of people contribute to creating a successful triple-A game. It’s the collective experience of a studio of creators that makes a game great.
However, Hideo Kojima is a creative that people associate with interesting, groundbreaking games. Kojima earned this reputation at Konami and now has full creative control over his projects at his independent studio, Kojima Productions. A recent Washington Post article referred to Kojima as an “auteur,” essentially a director with so much influence over a project that they transcend the role and instead define the entire work. This is a common title granted to Kojima in the media.
Kojima’s Reputation is Unmatched
Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s creative director John Epler took to the social media site Bluesky to comment on Kojima’s status as one of gaming’s few auteurs (nice spot, GamesRadar+), saying “Generally I resist the idea of auteurship in games, because so much of how a game turns out is out of the control of any individual person, but Kojima is one of the few people who I think earns it.”
Epler expanded upon his comments in replies, saying “As someone who just went through shipping an AAA game in a leadership role, having a vision is easy. Clearly communicating that vision and doing so in an actionable way? That’s the hard part, but he’s done it multiple times.” Epler went on to say that Death Stranding is “unlike anything [he’s] played” and while he isn’t sure that he loves it, he does admire it.
There certainly aren’t many creatives with the prestige and longevity that Kojima has cultivated. Hidetaka Miyazaki, Goichi Suda and Katsura Hashino are all other names that come to mind, but it’s difficult to match the name recognition of Hideo Kojima.
Kojima Productions is planning to release Death Stranding 2: On the Beach in 2025. The studio is also working on OD, a horror game co-written by Jordan Peele, and project Physint, a spiritual successor to Kojima’s Metal Gear.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.