In a recent interview with IGN, Hideo Kojima shared his thoughts on Virtual Reality, stating that he’s interested in making games that evoke unique feelings in players. Expressing a particular interest in horror titles, he said that he doesn’t want to rely on typical gore, but is interested in a “different kind of horror” for the technology.
Shooters are always fun, but I’m more interested, for example, in bringing out feelings in people that are unique to VR. Some feelings, maybe displeasure, maybe horror. But not the kind of horror you get from grotesque or gory things, but a different kind of horror.
Let’s say you put the VR headset on and there are a lot of people here, people you’re not familiar with. You’re not being told who you are, why you’re there. That alone is scary. That alone makes you want to look away. For example, when you look away you can have someone come [into the room]. You don’t need to explain anything. That’s something completely different. That alone is so interesting, the possibility of creating that.
Elsewhere in the interview, Kojima said that VR came up around 20 years ago and up until a few years ago, he didn’t think he’d be able to work with the technology because he was always overcome by motion sickness. He believed that he’d spend “every day puking” but thanks to the latest advancements, he feels “more confident” in developing something specifically for VR. However, Kojima isn’t a huge fan of the headsets and hopes that their size and appearance will improve with time.
With that said, he finds discussions about VR cost unnecessary at this point.
The stuff that will be out there in 10 years is just amazing. And it won’t only be in games, but also in simulators and in different things. When you think of this, if we can do this now, in 10 plus years, what will we have? The discussion of ‘well, it’s too pricey’ and all that, I just don’t understand why that is even an argument.
In a separate interview with IGN, Kojima said that he hopes to keep his studio small and full of talented people who are able to develop their talents. He made reference to a time where he was part of a team of over 200 people, explaining how it made things difficult. He also spoke highly of Media Molecule (Dreams) – a studio he visited during his recent tour – commending its workplace environment.
For more on Kojima Productions and its upcoming projects, check out our previous coverage.
