On Friday I lunched with Hideo Kojima along with his interpreter and three folks from Beacon in Santa Monica.
For those of you who don’t know, Kojima-san is the Stephen King and Stephen Spielberg of videogames.
He’s much younger than I expected—somewhere in his thirties. It was difficult to get a sense of him speaking through an interpreter, but I have the impression he’s someone I’d like to know better. We managed to discuss a little game theory and such. I learned that both he and his interpreter are big fans of Repairman Jack.
Afterward we went back to the Beacon office to see a couple of tapes. One was a demo of the engine he’s considering using on the Repairman Jack game; the other was a trailer for the new Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I’m not exaggerating when I say this man is a genius. MGS3 is awe inspiring -- amazingly immersive and will set a new highwater mark for videogames.
We were all in accordance that the RJ game should kick ass. He’ll be sent the new (and hopefully final) script to see if he can adapt that, or he’ll set the game post-Nightworld. (So for you who’ve wanted to know what Jack’s up to after Nightworld, this will be the only place to find out.) I think the latter scenario will give him the most latitude, but whatever he decides I know Jack will be well treated. He has tremendous respect for the character and I have tremendous respect for him.
They’re supposed to start working on the deal his week. Beacon wants him to do the game. Kojima-san wants to do the game. And since Konami wants what Kojima-san wants, this looks very, very good.
This post was last modified: 05-17-2004, 10:24 AM by fpw.
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