Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds

Please join me in welcoming...

- Mr. Hideo Kojima. - Hideo Kojima.

One of the most creative talents in the history of gaming.

Fantastic.

In the space of gaming, he is the master.

- Absolutely love your work. - Thank you.

You can tell it's a Hideo Kojima game

even if that credit wasn't there.

No way.

Video games are the biggest, most powerful form

of entertainment in the world

and the numbers clearly show that

more than three billion people on the planet play video games.

And Hideo really is probably the most well-known game creator

in the world.

It's kind of like stepping into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory

with Willy Wonka, you know?

You just kind of go along for the ride.

I think that it's the obligation of any artist

to push the boundaries of their canvas.

- -

I'm really interested in how people think creatively,

no matter what the discipline.

Any form of artistry, the process is the same almost always.

And that is an interplay between the intellect and the intuition.

He's fighting all the time.

I don't know with whom.

Maybe himself.

The story from back in the day was that

Hideo wanted to go and pitch a game

but he didn't want to tell anyone what it was.

He really wanted someone to sign up for the game

without hearing what the game was.

And everyone in the Western world was like, "You're crazy."

We know you're Hideo Kojima

but we're not going to sign up your game until we know what you're making.

And Sony, as far as I know, basically said,

"We're going to bet on you, Hideo Kojima, as a creator."

We don't even need to know what the game is.

We're just in.

He is not someone that just sort of rinses and repeats.

He really tries to, to reinvent how the game is played.

But overarching all that is this view

that he wants to communicate something to the player.

He really has a message that he wants to deliver in every game

that he hopes translates to the player.

Like every game he makes, there's a reason behind making the game.

Hello!

Hey you!

I'm Sam.

Hey, my name is Sam too!

- -

Thanks for the help.

The people she left behind have been hard at work,

setting up Chiral network terminals.

But these terminals are still isolated.

We need you to bring them online.

I don't know, like, new franchises right now.

I think that it's both, it's really brave and it's really hard.

They're mostly making, like, weird remakes and stuff.

It's, like, really hard to get funding for, like, new work in the modern era.

When you balance the commerciality expectation

of hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.

At the same time, wanting to stay true not just to your vision,

but to your whole idea of what gaming is.

That's like playing Russian roulette with six bullets.

In the collaborative arts or virtually all arts,

there's usually one voice ultimately.

The person who is that driving force has to do one very important thing

and that is create the strategies with which everybody else can work.

There's a kind of a Darwinian battle that goes on in your mind,

and the strongest ideas survive.

They keep coming back to you they won't let you go

until you become a little bit obsessed with them.

And you go from a very divergent, broad view of the work,

and you bounce down into a very, very highly focused,

granular level of the work.

And it's bouncing between the two.

The extent that they can articulate that

and convey it to the others and inspire others working with them.

Then the work will be a comprehensive whole.

Being across every single aspect is incredible to me,

like, that's, that takes something that I don't have.

Very, very special.

I don't know when he sleeps.

I don't know if and when Hideo ever sleeps.

People may be in charge of processing the call or engine

and character construction, rigging, whatever.

But the only person in charge of the orchestra

conducting for the emotion and the result is the auteur.

So the part that we're doing today is Sam reaches west.

I first heard of Hideo through Guillermo del Toro.

So Guillermo called me and said, "Hey, there's this guy.

He's going to call you. Just say, 'Yes'."

And I was like, "What are you talking about?"

And he's like, "Just whatever he says, say 'Yes'."

I knew that we were going to be stepping

into a big world with big characters.

Giving us a package to say to them, like, "Hey, this package is from Fragile."

And so many times, I had to stop and go, "Hold on a second, hold on a second."

"So, what you're saying is..."

and it would be whether it's about the story, about the character,

about the breadth and immensity of the design, um...

how it was going to relate to the player

and how those players were going to relate to each other.

The story and the experiences just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

There's so many moments that I've had with him where I'm like, "What?

Like, what are you talking about?"

And then at some point, she's kind of warped in front of you, okay?

Like, being, like...

Makes sense now, man.

Make so much sense.

It was confusing for a lot of us

because the story is so intricate and it's so deep.

It was very confusing but what was done in such a great way is,

I was felt like I was sort of drip-fed,

whatever my brain could handle at that moment in time.

Captain,

I need you to hand him over.

Shoot him, John.

Let him go.

Please.

Shoot him!

I gave you an order. Shoot him.

- Guys on Monday... - I wanna, bye.

Trust in this medium is key.

It is the bedrock foundation for many reasons.

Number one, everything is in an abstraction.

Everything is vague.

- Good, Mark. Take three. - All right.

There's just four white walls with a bunch of cameras.

Right, we're all set.

Ready? Action.

Oh, Sam Bridges.

So trust is at the root of it all.

So...

Fragile...

Like the world and everything in it.

Me? I'm...

I'm no exception.

Let's not forget little old you.

I know it ain't easy wearing a mask all the time.

But now the mask can come off, right?

The more he would tell me, the more I would understand.

And you have to understand, I started making this game

not knowing anything about what anybody's talking about.

So as the trust got deeper and stronger,

the storyline got more revealed to me in a way that I could understand it.

And I knew we were doing something really special. You know?

We want the player, same flashback...

Every time we think we have an idea of what this is about,

it's just another layer and another layer.

Except me. I see you, and I talk to you.

And I tell you that you must...

Just point me, just tell me...

Yeah.