Hideo Kojima is building a horror experience so terrifying that he felt compelled to add a safety valve. His upcoming Xbox game OD, developed in partnership with Get Out director Jordan Peele, will include a special system designed to let players who are frightened into quitting actually stay in the game, though Kojima is being cagey about how it works.
"I wanted to go beyond the limit of the 'scariness' that other games had reached," Kojima told Entertainment Weekly. "It's a single-player game, and I wanted to make it as scary as possible. But for those that might stop playing when it gets too scary, I have thought of a system that will allow them to keep going."
The legendary developer refused to elaborate on the mechanic itself, citing potential trouble. "I can't say much more, because it'll give too much of a hint on the system, and I could get in trouble for saying too much," he explained.
Kojima has harbored the OD concept since his Death Stranding days, pitching it to major studios and smaller companies alike. The reaction was uniform dismissal. "All of them said the same thing," Kojima recalled. "They said that I'm crazy, and that they really don't understand the concept, that they will not be able to do it." Phil Spencer, then heading Xbox's gaming division, proved the exception, greeing the project before Asha Sharma took over the role. Sharma doubled down on Xbox's commitment to the game, emphasizing the platform's need to remain open to ambitious creators.
The production has hit some turbulence. The original cast was to include Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and veteran actor Udo Kier, who died in November at 81. Kojima Productions had completed a digital scan of Kier before his death but didn't finish filming with him in time. Kojima declined to say whether Kier's footage appears in the game or if he's being recast, though he confirmed that principal photography with the rest of the cast is now underway.
OD carries spiritual echoes of Kojima's P.T., the notoriously unsettling 2014 demo that turned out to be a cryptic trailer for Silent Hills. That game never materialized after Konami and Kojima's ugly public split in 2015. Fans have speculated whether OD might connect to P.T. in some way, and recent footage suggests the new game channels the same disturbing energy that made that playable trailer legendary.
The project also appears insulated from Microsoft's gaming restructuring, which is expected to trigger layoffs and potential cancellations later this month. Sharma's emphasis on maintaining Xbox as a home for experimental creators suggests OD has institutional backing at the highest level.
Author Emily Chen: "A game that scares people so much Kojima felt obligated to build in an emotional ejection seat is either genius or hubris, and knowing his track record, probably both."
Comments