Hideo Kojima is one of the most celebrated video game designers out there, no doubt. And since putting out his Death Stranding video game in 2019, people have been wondering what his next game will be.
And as is always the case with Kojima, there has been plenty of rumor and speculation regarding his next video game release. An indie game named “Abandoned” seemed to be a front for a Hideo Kojima game last year, with the conspiracy ballooning to ridiculous proportions before the link between Kojima and Abandoned was proven false (this was one of the biggest controversies of 2021 for sure).
Other rumors pointed to Kojima working on a game for Xbox consoles, and these have finally proven true… Actually, Kojima revealed at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase earlier this month that he’s working on an Xbox game, but failed to provide any specific info about his next video game project for Xbox Game Studios.
“It’s a completely new game that no one have ever seen or experienced before. I’ve waited very long for the day when I could finally start to create it”, said Kojima. “With Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud technology and the change in the industry’s trend, it has now become possible to challenge myself to make this never-before-seen concept”, added Kojima.
Back in 2017, Kojima said he thought virtual reality gaming would “be big”, so maybe his next game will support VR headsets in some capacity too. What’s clear, though, that Kojima’s next game will make use of Microsoft’s cloud gaming technology in some way (via Polygon) as he himself states.
Also, this almost certainly will be a Xbox exclusive (or Xbox timed exclusive at least). This is something which may not go down well with Kojima’s PlayStation fans, as the Japanese designer’s games have been mostly on PlayStation throughout the years. His previous game Death Stranding was a PlayStation exclusive, but later released on PC. It seemed that his company Kojima Productions would continue to support PlayStation consoles first and foremost, but that’s life I guess…
Prior to the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase announcement, a freelance reporter who had seen leaked footage of the game said actress Margaret Qualley (who featured in Death Stranding) will appear in the game, which apparently is titled “Overdose”, and will be a horror game of some sort.
Of course, while Overdose may just be a working title, it’s unlikely this will turn out to be Silent Hills, the cancelled Silent Hill sequel that Kojima was working on at Konami before being unceremoniously booted from the company in 2015.
Konami owns the Silent Hill IP for one, and rumors strongly suggest that new entries in the series (including a Silent Hill 2 remake) are incoming, so it’s unlikely that Kojima’s next game has anything to do with Silent Hill.
Nonetheless, Hideo Kojima is one of the most creative people working on video games these days, so any game by the Japanese designer is definitely something to look forward to, so hopefully we’ll hear more from Kojima and Microsoft about this upcoming game sooner rather than later, then.
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 (Xbox / YouTube)