Cognition Dissemination: Stranding on the Edge of Death

For Hideo Kojima and all of Konami’s Kojima Productions employees, 2015 was a terrible year.

Konami picked the year of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s release to start seriously interfering with the development team’s morale. At the time, we received small stories about the turmoil unfolding behind the scenes, outwardly shown with Kojima’s name being removed from every Metal Gear title listed on the site, and from the final TPP box. It wasn’t until this year where it was explained that Kojima was separated from the rest of the development team for the final six months of TPP’s development (scroll to the fourth to the last paragraph), meaning he had to find creative ways to give them tips to continue working with them. It explains why the game’s final act ended so abruptly, like it needed another chapter to clear up mysteries that weren’t answered or made clear.

Thankfully, those days are over, as Kojima and other staffers are in a better place now. In fact, they were quick to establish a new home at Kojima Productions, holding a name identical to the one they left behind at Konami; though it’s also one they can’t be taken to court over, since it uses Kojima’s last name.

The sky was also their limit in terms of development, as a partnership was quickly established with Sony Interactive Entertainment. The team quickly got to work on establishing a vision for what they wanted to make going forward. They launched with the tagline “From Sapiens to Ludens,” showing that they, and we, are people with wisdom who play. This was announced with a mascot called “Ludens,” who was later revealed to be Kojima himself behind the mask, similar to how he was revealed to be Joakim Mogren. He truly keeps coming, but please ignore the unintended (?) euphemism.

The development team must have envisioned the concept for their next project near the end of MGSV’s completion, too, considering Kojima was quick to reveal an early concept video and name at Sony’s E3 2016 conference for a project called Death Stranding.

The trailer showed a naked man later revealed to be Norman Reedus, previously playing the main character in the cancelled Silent Hills, who picks up a baby tethered to him and cries. Outside the movie talent appearance, the only clear hint that could be taken from this is how the final game will have something to do with the theme of birth. That is, until…well, just watch it and see what unfolds. It’s the kind of bizarre trailer only Hideo Kojima could make. You could also take away how it clearly wasn’t a game in active development yet, though this was clear when Kojima posted about his adventures searching for a good graphics engine to use on Twitter earlier this year.

Just when you might have thought it would be the kind of project that would go into hibernation for months — or years — before resurfacing, Kojima prepared a special Death Stranding showcase for The Game Awards, and longtime friend (or BFF?) Geoff Keighley. If you thought the first trailer was bizarre in its themes, this one was quick to top that within seconds. For one, it features Guillermo Del Toro (who was to be involved in the aforementioned cancelled Silent Hills) hiding from soldiers resembling skeletons in military garb and tanks in a war-torn battlefield. That’s strange enough, until another unit arrives under the bridge, being led by one who bears a striking resemblance to Mads Mikkelsen. He also looks down at a broken mannequin of a baby. Once again, this is definitely a Kojima trailer.

There are all sorts of fan theories about what the trailers are really trying to tell us, and I’d be here all day if I ran through all of them. In addition to how this will be an expensive project, Kojima also revealed the graphics engine they’ll be using: Guerilla Games’ Decima engine, the same one  powering the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn. At least the project is getting somewhere, though it will still be a while before we see this game in action.

It feels like these trailers are nothing but bizarre events assembled together haphazardly on the surface, but as Kojima’s early trailers for The Phantom Pain showed, he loves leaving clues in these. Personally, I’m hoping the final product will be as prescient regarding humanity as Metal Gear Solid 2 was to how we’re consuming information. MGS2’s themes near the game’s conclusion seemed like nonsensical theories when people first encountered them in 2001 and 2002, but it predicted how humans would consume information in the future. This was especially seen during this recent American election season, where people retreated to semi-closed spaces (particularly on Facebook) to spread news that seemed like it was said with sufficient authority. Too much of that news ended up being fake (or “post-truth,” as they’re calling it), especially as the election itself neared. Kojima’s assessment was frighteningly accurate, and I’d like to see him give that another stab here.

It’s clear that Kojima Productions has no intention of going MIA with Death Stranding’s development, as the intent will involve providing crazy teaser videos until the game is ready to show. In other words, he’ll keep coming. Buckle up for the remainder of Kojima’s crazy ride.