Why Kojima is working with Sony for Death Stranding
In an interview posted by French website Gameblog, Kojima explained why he chose to partner up with Sony for his first title. He said that he received numerous offers, but wanted to assure that they were under the best conditions for this first title. He has had a good relationship with Sony for a long time, and the absolute trust between both studios allows him to focus on the creative aspects. Partnering up with another company would have meant more non-game development tasks. Contract negotiations would have taken more time, and Kojima doesn’t think things would’ve happened as quickly as they have now. Sony has offered him a lot of freedom and support. Of course, he still had to explain his plans to them, but they immediately told him to go for it and do what he has to do. Because of this, energy that would’ve normally been put in pitching his next title could now go into the project itself, which according to Kojima makes a real difference.
Speaking to The Guardian, Andrew House of SIE Japan talked about visiting the new studio. “I was possibly the first visitor to Kojima’s new office. It’s just across the road from mine.” he said. “I went over to see how they were settling in, and the atmosphere was great – there was such a vibe of creativity. I’ve not told anyone outside of the company this story, but when I sat down to watch the trailer, Kojima had arranged it so that every single employee gradually gathered behind me. By the time it was over, the whole of Kojima Productions was around me, so I had to address them all. It was lovely.”
Jim Ryan of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe also talked about the collaboration between his company and Kojima’s in an interview with VG24/7. When asked if they place any restrictions on Kojima, he replied: “My perspective on that would be if you try to place too many constraints on a free spirit like that it’s probably not a wise thing to do. But equally, clearly, with something like that there’s a significant investment on the part of Sony, and all of us who make those sort of decisions around that sort of investment are ultimately accountable to Sony shareholders. It’s a balance between allowing the creativity to flourish and recognizing that we’re part of a business.” Fortunately Kojima has had to balance business and creativity in the past, so he should be capable of performing this task now that he is leading his own studio as well.
And it looks like the freedom Sony is giving to Kojima extends to other things as well. On yesterday’s PlayStation E3 2016 Livecast, Shawn Layden (Chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios) talked a bit about Kojima’s appearance on the Sony conference. When Kojima walked down on the bridge of light the crowd went wild, with the life orchestra in front of the stage performing a piece of Mad Max music. “By request from Kojima-san himself.” Layden revealed. “That’s what he asked for, and we got the orchestra to perform that piece.” No surprise for those who know Kojima, as he is a big fan of the movie series, and he named Mad Max Fury Road the best movie of 2015.
Source: PlayStation Livecast, VG247, GameBlog, Gamer Center Online, The Guardian
