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Kojima: We don’t need to worry about pleasing investors

In an interview with IGN, Kojima talked about his career up until this point and the road ahead. Despite the ugly breakup with his former employer Konami, Kojima has no regrets about how he spent the last 30 years.

“The me that stands here now is the product of the past 53 years of my life. Everything I experienced over 53 years; movies I’ve seen, books I’ve read, music I’ve listened to, games I’ve played, people I’ve met and the 30 years spent in this industry, have formed who I am. Not one of these things has been without purpose, including my experience creating games at Konami.”

To Newsbeat, he said:

“I worked for 30 years at my previous company. I had a lot of experiences there and I’m very appreciative of everything I gained from that experience.”

Kojima is now the head of his own independent company, and that gives him a lot of freedom during the creative process.

“I have more freedom now because the final decision comes down to me. This company is not listed on the stock exchange so we don’t need to worry about pleasing investors. We can just concentrate on making good games.”

Kojima doesn’t want his company to be a studio that just relies on sequels.

“We don’t want to be a studio that re-uses assets, ideas or just makes sequels all the time. We want it so every time someone plays one of our games they’re getting a new experience.”

He’s trying something new with Death Stranding too, something unlike anything people have played before. For Kojima taking these kind of risks is important, explaining how the bands everyone remembers are those that adapt and evolve trough the ages.

“They might lose some fans along the way, but they bring in new ones, that’s the kind of approach I want to take with my new game.”

Speaking to Nikkei, Kojima said:

“When you are in a large company, you have to sell new products every once in a while within the framework of the company’s budget, and a lot of time is taken up with coordination between different departments. [..] We are not a company. We are a studio. I won’t hire more people for the sake of developing multiple games at the same time. We will dedicate our efforts to a single title at a time.”

To read the full interviews follow the links in the source section below.

Source: IGN, Newsbeat, Gamespot, Nikkei

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