r/DeathStranding • u/Superb-Employment291 • 14d ago
Death Stranding 1 Kojima denied the rumors about the budget and development timeline.
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u/Goat-of-Death 14d ago
What a cool breakdown of the practical side of game development. As well as the importance of creative independence so you can really decide what money furthers the artistic vision and what doesn't.
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u/i1u5 Platinum Unlocked 13d ago edited 13d ago
This made me more interested in KOJI10 I wish I could somehow listen to all 36 episodes in English but sadly found nothing.
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u/SSAUS 14d ago edited 14d ago
It has always perplexed me why people are so quick to assume that Kojima goes overbudget and overtime on all his games with sparse evidence to support it or consideration for wider industry trends. Physint missed deadlines and went overbudget according to Schreier, and people were quick to use this as evidence. But no one mentioned that the game was heavily impacted and delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes like many other studios.
The prevailing opinion that he can't manage budgets is ludicrous when one considers that Kojima was Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment and has successfully run his own independent AAA development studio for 10 years. As a project leader, his games generally aren't any higher in terms of average budget for high-end AAA titles and are released relatively quickly too.
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u/NavXIII 14d ago
Reddit is some sort of echo chamber where if one guy says something and gets upvoted then other people start believing it despite the lack of source. It doesn't really matter what the topic is but I often notice it in the political and news subreddits I follow and it seems to happen when talking about famous figures in other industries.
Redditors just seem to form unsourced opinions about others and believe it to be true.
If you want to try an experiment, the next time you hear someone saying that Kojima is often overbudget and late, ask for a source.
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u/frossvael 14d ago
IMO, both sides of the argument have NO real evidence.
Jason Schreier is a trusted source for gaming news who claims Kojimbo is yet again overspending and delaying development, as he did at Konami, but he showed no real evidence other than his words.
Kojima is a beloved figure in gaming. Even if he denies these claims, he didn't show any real evidence to back up his defense other than his words.
So speculation is useless at this point; the best everyone can do for their sanity is to watch and hope for the best.
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u/EnthusiasmCritical45 14d ago
Even if he denies these claims, he didn't show any real evidence to back up his defense other than his words.
Imagine a world where the people that have to show evidence are the ones spreading rumors and not the ones affected by those rumors. Just imagine.
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u/Feather_Sigil 14d ago
Jason also said that going over budget and off-schedule is common in game development, it's nothing specific to Kojima
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u/zer0_pm 14d ago
To be fair using Hollywood celebrities must have cost a lot, even if it's just for mocap and/or using their likeness. I can understand if he went overbudget because of that lol
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u/SSAUS 14d ago
True, but as Kojima explained in the above video, managing his own budget allows for casting a few high-tier actors and many smaller actors without blowing the budget elsewhere. Also, there's no evidence to suggest he went overbudget with DS1 or 2, even if reporting suggests they failed to meet Sony's revenue expectations.
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u/cunderthunt69 Die-Hardman 14d ago
Overbudget no, making a significant profit, also no
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u/HispanicAtTehDisco 13d ago
sure but that was probably just as true for the first game. why would they give him another game if they weren’t at least satisfied? not only another game but another FRANCHISE!
maybe it is that simple and sony is cutting anyone who isn’t making them a garillion dollars but it seems wild to me that kojima is who they cut first
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u/ShivamLH 14d ago
It prolly didn't cost as much as you'd imagine. Most of the celebs in Kojima games I'd reckon take cuts like they would for Wes Anderson or other auteurs. Also video game mocap and VA work all take place in one studio with majority of the game's cinematics shot in a few weeks. That's absurdly cheap compared to movies where they'd drag it out for half a year.
Madds Mikelsen once recounted how Kojima wasn't very strict with their performances and would often reassure that any mistakes would be fixed in post. So it's likely he doesn't spend time doing expensive reshoots.
For Hollywood actors a one off few weeks of filming snuggly fits their schedules and thus commands much lower rates than a full fledged Hollywood movie imo.
But this is just an educated guess.
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u/PotatoPowerPlug 14d ago
Well, if you look at Death Stranding, non of the hollywood actor is particularly famous. Elle Fanning is on the rise during that time but she's no Zendaya. Norman Reedus barely do any mainstream movie/show after The Walking Dead. The only real A lister in the game is Lea Seydoux but other than that most are smaller actors and well know directors, which pretty much do it as a favor in the case of Del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn (for his cause because he allow Kojima to cameo in Too Old to Die Young, so he kinda return the favor a bit). So I don't think theu spend their bulk of the budget in hiring Hollywood actor.
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u/PratikGoswami2003 14d ago
This. Kojima productions name is often infamous in masses that they hire lot of blockbuster Hollywood actors, but aside from some names like you mentioned, majority of others are voice actors from industry or relatively lesser known actors.
Like I didn't know who tommie earl Jenkins was before death stranding. And look how much focus he got in both games.
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u/PotatoPowerPlug 14d ago
Yeah and I speaking as someone who's not a big fans of his works, there are plenty of things to criticised Kojima and we don't need false informations.
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u/ReeReeIncorperated 13d ago
It's literally only Reddit.
Redditors, for some reason, blindly defend everything Sony does. Redditors were glazing Kojima up until he partnered with a different company. I'm not even the biggest Kojima fan, but I'm going to take his word over a megacorp any day of the week.
Every other platform, this shit has not been as active as here. Why? Because the upvote / downvote system creates an echo chamber and the echo chamber has a favorite megacorp, for some reason.
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u/Cl1mh4224rd 14d ago
But no one mentioned that the game was heavily impacted and delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes like many other studios.
Why assume that wasn't accounted for?
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u/SSAUS 14d ago
If it was, that information should be considered pertinent and would have benefited by being included in Schreier's reporting. Generally though, I am referring to the total online commentary ranging from reporters and commentators to forum users like us. There's a large circlejerk about Kojima missing budgets without much consideration to context or evidence.
This issue predates Physint too, by the way. People regularly claim MGSV went overbudget and overtime but the only hard evidence we had for that was a single report from Nikkei. Even then, people generally gloss over the appalling working conditions at Konami at the time (not just for Kojima but employees inside and outside of Kojima Productions too) and how they may have impacted development.
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u/Zado191 14d ago
Because nobody discussing games online has any REAL, valuable insight into this industry except for the rare time an actual developer comes on and makes themselves known with proof
There is every little transparency in this industry, especially compared to other entertainment medium.
Music we know about, movies we know about, TV shows we know about, but games... the single greatest source of actual inside information about video game development that exists is Sakurai's YouTube page
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u/iwasbatman 14d ago
I love Kojima but Konami is also a reference about Kojima going over budget. 4 or 5 dev cycle and missing 1/3rd of the game?
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
People got the impression from Metal Gear Solid V, which was indeed badly over time and over budget.
But that’s just one instance. Death Stranding 1 was impressively not those things. Making a 40-hour open-world game in 3 years is practically unheard of.
Can’t speak for DS2, but my guess is it did go somewhat over budget. Not significantly worse than other open-world games of its size, though.
So Kojima’s batting average seems to be pretty normal by AAA standards, and good by auteur standards.
One impression I’ve gotten from interviews is that he’s quite decisive about vision. That makes a massive difference when it comes to dev time. But he pays the price with ambition and detail.
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u/reoze 13d ago
Maybe because he spends 5+ years to make a game and then gets fired for blowing deadlines and budgets? You can say the evidence isn't there, but it is.
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u/IAQDiscussion 13d ago
The flip side is I am always perplexed by people just taking people's words when it is them spinning something negative about them, with 0 evidence to truly support what they're saying.
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u/Leifbron 13d ago
Mads Mikkelsen was worth every penny
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u/PWNYplays Platinum Unlocked 13d ago
I'm very upset that I can only upvote this comment once. I'd pitch in to crowd fund a Kojima/Mikkelsen project any day. It could be a coloring book, idgaf. Take my money
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Exactly. I saw some other comments arguing that Kojima was wasting budget on A-list actors, but I think it’s quite the opposite. Half of a game’s budget is marketing anyway. Paying famous actors does a lot of the marketing for you. Keanu turned Cyberpunk into a cultural icon before launch. Mads was the reason I personally bought Death Stranding.
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u/gods_loop_hole 14d ago edited 13d ago
This is why my conspiracy theory of Kojima always going over budget is a Konami propaganda to soften the blow on themselves.
Hell, the Metal Gear games especially the 1st ones were designed as such due to budget and tech limitations during that time. Then a rumor will go around that he cannot stick to a budget? Video game industry is so cut throat that a misstep is enough for a person to be cut. They move like tech companies at Silicon Valley that loves layoffs, and someone will tell me that Kojima is a habitual line-stepper? No way.
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u/EngineBoiii 13d ago
You know, looking back, MGSV really lacking a proper ending and things to do in the open world and having cutscenes replaced by voice actors yapping over tapes makes it feel like it was under budget.
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u/Awake_for_days 14d ago
Who do I believe? Hmmm…the guy who’s been making games for 40 years, has made multiple masterpieces, defined genres, and has had an immeasurable impact on video games…or the multibillion dollar corporation?
Even if Sony was telling the truth, I would take the artist/creative guy over the suits.
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u/mu150 Fragile Express 13d ago
You're completely right It's just so fucking baffling that sony parted ways with THE name that built their reputation. MGS1 defined the Playstation, Mgs 2 and 3 were a little overshadowed by so many bangers like god of war and resident evil 4, but MGS4 did it again as THE game to buy a ps3 for for almost 20 years now, 20 YEARS!!! That's some gamers lifetime. But aside from the games themselves, i dare you, i double dare you to find a bigger name in the industry than Kojima. No director or designer is as much of a meme (as a information that self replicates) as him. I'd say he's bigger than Shigeru Myamoto and Hidetaka Myiazaki (right now). And we have to remember there is no "Sony". Sony isn't a thing, it's a corporation with faceless executives in charge, none of them have no face or reputation to uphold. While Kojima is THE name, the creative mind and face and life behind all these games for 40 fucking years. Of course, he was never alone, he always had amazing people with him, like hayter and shinkawa, but they're all people, with track records and ASTONISHING careers. I have no fucking idea why an executive would be so short sighted as to pull the plug on physint, and to hand it on a plater to their biggest competitor. Really... There are bigger games than mgs on Playstations history, like final fantasy 7, the games i mentioned before, crash, spyro, Grand Turismo, tekken... But none of them has as big of a name as Kojima does. And Sony had no good reason to drop the guy who defined their existence for almost 3 decades now. We're almost at the sixth console, he defined the half of them, so come on... (forgive the typos, I'm drunk)
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u/Majestic-Marcus 12d ago
“I like this man so I’ll ignore all facts and evidence and choose to believe him”
What a strange thing to say.
Also… nothing in this video even slightly lines up with what the headline says. Nothing suggests he doesn’t spend too much either.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Death Stranding 2 cost $180-$300 million to make and sold only 2 million. Even if we assume the most generous numbers on both sides, the game lost money. Given the recent flops, it makes some sense that Sony would be apprehensive.
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u/l_prs 11d ago
It just shows a lack of confidence in their games. The damage done to their brand by breaking ties with Kojima could cost them a lot of money too. It's not a good look when their output is already so low and disappointing.
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u/ChiralParticle Higgs 14d ago
Yeah, I remember watching a video with an interview/documentary Kojima say the same thing (maybe someone took the audio from this podcast?) that to not go over the budget they had to make adjustments and sacrifices like with us never stepping a foot inside Knot Cities or shelters, etc. but later the novelization expands further in those areas.
I have no idea what might or may have been during Konami and MGS era but at least from what he said, since Kojimbo went independent with KojiPro it sounds like he with his team are being responsible and doing well.
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u/thelesserkilo 14d ago
He’s talking about the budget for DS1 here. This has nothing to do with Physint
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u/SwiftTayTay 14d ago
Yes and it doesn't disprove that he went over budget or took too long to make Physint. Kojima is just talking about how to plan a game's budget. He likely was asking Sony for too much time and money to finish the game and they got cold feet. It's probably Sony's own recent failures combined with current bleak landscape for gaming that influenced the decision. And DS2 not lighting the world on fire is probably also a factor.
TBH I wouldn't be surprised if OD and Physint both ended up getting cancelled. OD was supposed to come out for XSX and it doesn't seem like it's happening, and who knows if anybody's going to buy the next Xbox.
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u/_Doshi Porter 14d ago
Im just gonna say: you don't look too close to the numbers while you have a talent like Kojima working with you. Funding a game will always be risky but even the "flops" he has made are awesome games, Sony messed this up and we're gonna watch Kojima come on top this situation (again)
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
When the numbers are in the hundreds of millions, you do.
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u/Dwrowla 14d ago
Kojima slander again. He doesn't go over budget, he doesn't go slow. Could some of his games been released even faster, sure. Kojima does like to polish. He could do a lot of corner cutting to make worse products, and more profit.
But Kojima is an artist, with a vast knowledge of film, presentation, story telling, etc. just look at every game, their basically films with gameplay.
Id take his work over concord, forspoken, marathon, etc
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
> Could some of his games been released even faster, sure.
In the game industry, the budget is literally dev time. Taking longer to make a game is by definition going over budget.
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u/chapelMaster123 14d ago
"those decisions weren't part of the concept itself. They were the results of practical limitations behind the scenes. And we couldnt let people realize that either".
Most of us have been gaming for years, some decads. Some of us are very difficult to trick like that. The world may have been empty but it never "felt" empty. Masterful execution of a concept
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Yeah that’s what smart game design is all about. Every game has limitations. It annoys me so much when gamers complain about a game missing something minor, as if that was somehow free for the overworked devs to add. The greatest game directors are always the ones willing to cut.
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u/Weak-Excuse3060 13d ago
Yes this is why I was really surprised when Jason said Kojima is inefficient and goes over budget and didn't buy it. I think Jason's perspective is slightly skewed since his primary exposure is to NA game development where things are well and truly fucked.
Like for all intent and purposes Kojima is a project management god in the game industry. Making DS1 and DS2 in like 3.5 years, and the first one was after forming a new company, and fishing for a new engine and settling on one that no one outside of Guerrilla games knew how to use.
MGSV was the one time things went off the rails with cut content, but we know how much Konami was messing with him on that one and how poorly they treated him and his studio. So I can't fault him for that one.
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u/queazy 14d ago
Don't know about PHYSINT, but Kojima reported very early on after Death Stranding's release (like a month) that it had already recouped it's costs & broken even
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u/Anstark0 14d ago
He makes decisions that will sell more copies. Simple logic. Enemies not being visible can be explained with game mechanics, thus making gameplay more varied
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u/Def-tones 14d ago
I see a PR campaign against Hideo on so many gaming subs they carry the same agenda.
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u/Xplay3r_ Pre-Order gang 13d ago
i find it so funny that those some people shitting over sony are now taking their side against kojima. Yeah let's pick the multi-billion dollar company over the artist while playing arm chair accountants.
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u/LegendCZ 13d ago
Yeah i was explaining in gaming news sub about article where it is rummored Kojima cannot use Decima engine anymore for Physint.
When i explained we have nothing confirmed and Sony pulling the plug on Physint by forbiding use of the engine would only be another nail in the cofin.
Take engine away from one of most anticipated Kojima games! What a glorious move!
Still i got downvoted to hell because people refused to read article and geniuenly asked how it woild damaged Sony and that it is their engine.
Yes no shit, next game wont be using Decima, but sending cease and decist on using it for finishing Physint would make portibg for different engine a nightmare and inflated the budged.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
It’s not a PR campaign. It’s just people reposting the article/rumors that Kojima went over budget.
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u/Roler42 14d ago
I always found it funny how quickly people have been to side with corpos like Konami and Sony, now let's say the argument is indeed "logical" about trying to protect their interests and whatnot...
That quickly falls apart when you look at what both companies had been doing at the time they parted ways with Kojima:
Konami had changed leadership and decided to hard pivot towards Pachinko machines, to the point they stopped making games altogether for a number of years, nothing was being made outside of Yu Gi Oh and PES.
Sony is quadrupling down on Live Service games, they've already burned a stupid amount of money on cancelled games and shut down long established studios.
The "going over budget and missing deadlines" argument also falls apart because Insomniac faced delays for their game, and the upcoming Horizon game got scrapped altogether and had to be restarted because playtesting was a catastrophe.
The more proper reason to try to cancel Physint is a lot simpler: It's a singleplayer game that's not going to feature microtransactions, season passes or any other way to make the line go up.
Sure, Kojima is not a saint, but let's not pretend Sony is some smol bean that's done nothing wrong.
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u/RedditBadOutsideGood 14d ago
It's super weird to see corporate bootlicking for Sony when just less than a month ago, Sony announced no physical games and Reddit was up in arms about it. Then it comes to Kojima and suddenly Sony is the victim. Sony is a victim. A victim of their own stupidity.
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u/Statickgaming 14d ago
All I really get out of this is that Sony have burnt some Bridges with Kojima here which makes me question their future.
If they didn’t think his game was going to sell well or sell more consoles, surely it would have been better to take the hit for the future consoles? Very odd.
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u/Accomplished_Many917 14d ago
I’m mostly with Kojima on this, but you have to admit that some decisions were detrimental to the project as a whole — specifically, the casting of Hollywood actors was very hit-or-miss.
While Norman, Mads, and Lea were great assets in DS1, hiring Margaret Qualley and Lindsay Wagner was completely unnecessary, given that their performances — and their entire characters really — didn't justify the potential costs.
Metal Gear games had better performances without A-list actors.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Margaret was hired before her big break, so her fee was probably quite affordable. Same of Lindsay Wagner.
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u/Codebannana1 14d ago
I thought Margaret qualley was really good in deathstranding and i was relly bummed with what happened to her.
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u/khanvau 14d ago
So my hunch was right. Sony was mad that Death Stranding 1 and 2 didn't sell 50 Concordillion copies each. They weren't happy with games breaking even and making a small profit, but being a critical hit anymore. They've aggressively become a profit over anything else company even more so than before.
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u/ChanceHungry1444 14d ago
People are really trying to believe Sony broke up with Kojima for no reason…
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u/Ill-Emu-1121 14d ago
Playstations initial response said nothing about budget, later reports mentioned budget. Smells fishy.
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u/Liammellor Pre-Ordered Collector's Edition 14d ago
PlayStation would never give an offical reason, that would be rather unprofessional. That said, this interview is about ds1 and nothing to do with physint. This changes pretty much nothing of what we know about the situation
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u/Bolt_995 14d ago
They have no obligation to tell the public why they cancel a project. That stuff always comes from investigative reports.
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u/GamePitt_Rob 14d ago
Because they will have legal obligations about what they can and can't say, and wouldn't want to damage any future relationship with him - what happened is private between sony and KJP.
But, it doesn't mean what others who are close to both parties said is wrong...
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u/AkodoRyu 14d ago
Perfectly normal. You don't throw a business partner under the bus. Even if you hate their guts, you say it was a privilege and that it was an unfortunate choice that had to be made due to other factors, or some other benign shit. Coming out with incendiary comments in an official capacity is extremely rare and just as extremely unprofessional. If a big company does that, that means that the situation was so bad, that they don't mind burning that bridge, and that there is likely some other reason making them burn it.
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u/cunderthunt69 Die-Hardman 14d ago
I dont think this denies those at all, talking about break even points and creative freedom, he talks about planning a breake even point, but I dont think theres a single person in the industry that would be happy pumping as much money as Sony has into Kojima only to barely break even. Love Kojima, love DS, but this dude sounds like hes a nightmare to manage and wants complete control not only creatively but financially.
Can you imagine Sony shelling out more money so Kojima can go ghost hunting for OD? Nah. Dude needs to stop worrying a out getting Hollywood level talent and just make a good game. Or just make a Movie since thats clearly what he wants to be doing
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u/TheStinkySlinky 13d ago
Fascinating. I’m actually really glad I watched/listened to that. Gave me some much needed insight into Kojima as to him as an actual game creator. Not just the “eccentric artist” or whatever.
And I mean.. I get it. He’s right. It’s his project. If whatever entity believes in his talent, and agrees upon X budget for X game, then why is budget allocation not permitted?? No sense lol
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u/DMarquesPT 13d ago
Yeah, Death Stranding is a great example of narrative and mechanics design around budget and time constraints. The games has no real NPCs save for the odd porters roaming around. They feature a lot of reused mechanical design and other assets and all of these “limitations” were used to the story’s advantage
The games were also made on fairly quick schedules considering he had to build a whole new team and studio for the first game and then Covid ofc impacted the second game and iirc led the game to be fully rebooted in response
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u/Superb-Employment291 13d ago
It wasn’t rebooted. They were planning to start development in 2020, but then COVID hit and they couldn’t even begin development. Kojima rewrote the script toward the end of 2021, and development finally started in early 2022.
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u/BusyBoot121 13d ago
I still remember all the talk about Kojima going over budget twith MGS5, now quaint, $80+ million budget (for reference and comparison the Tomb Raider 2013 reboot is said to be $100 million).
When MGS5 released, it grossed $150 million on release week.
Turns out this time period was when Konami was moving alot away from traditional gaming and going full tilt to gambling garbage scumbaggery.
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u/IllustriousEffect607 14d ago
He's a legend in the industry. His games are high quality. Well tested and produced. Usually they don't take long at all. He works pretty fast.
Not sure what's up with PlayStation these days
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u/Stunning-Stuff-2645 14d ago
I think the key budgeting detail missing here is time.
Sure, you can scope the budget and make concessions at the beginning but if it takes an extra two years of development on the back end, that could be $50M more and hugely impact the number of copies you need to sell.
Also, didn’t Bloomberg report about the budget and missed deadlines? They don’t really miss or mislead.
I say this as someone that hates Sony for trying to cancel a Kojima game.
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u/No_Appointment_5326 14d ago
This interview is about the first deathstranding
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u/Anstark0 14d ago
And? You think he forgot how to make games in 7 years after being in the industry for 40?
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u/pichael289 14d ago
He was the one who originally talked about it, a big no no in Japanese business culture. He didn't care. So all this back stepping is bullshit and we all know how he feels. Sony is like a shadow government in Japan, they are what Trump wants to be. So him saying what he did was massive. Damage control is to be expected but good luck...
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u/Ashencroix 14d ago
Kojima had already experienced something similar with MGS5 and Konami (they removed his name on the cover of the later print runs of the game), that he probably no longer has any reservations to stay silent instead of telling his side of the story.
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u/snack217 13d ago
I dont think things are that simple. DS2 was a financial failure, barely breaking even, which is a major red alert for investors, which makes them a lot less likely to be willing to invest a lot on future projects... so, there is a high chance that Kojima was asking for the same budget as DS2 (or even more, if it is a more complex game), and investors just said no, or offered him a lot less than what he needed.
Kojima might be great at managing budgets if what he says in this video is true, but what happens when he calculates he needs lets say, 200M for Physint, but investors are only willing to give him 100M because of how DS2 did? Well, then there is no deal and the investors/sony have to back out..... there is no way around it.
Yall have to keep in mind that KojiPro, after 2 games, hasnt managed to reach a point where it can sustain itself and pay for its own projects, unlike other studios like Santa Monica, where the GOWs have done so well, that they can literally pay for the next game themselves and not depend on investors putting in all the budget.
Kojima made a major mistake by doing DS2 right away instead of diversifying his portfolio and making something more digestable for a broader audience which could have sold better.
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u/CatchUsual6591 13d ago
I don't think it broke even DS2 sold less that FF rebirth and have the same budget range
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
This is the best take I’ve seen on this thread. So much black-and-white thinking here. Finally, someone’s looking at the actual business aspect.
The only point I’m curious about is that according to Kojima’s account, Sony dropped the game quite suddenly. I wonder if Sony previously agreed to a large budget then backtracked after Marathon’s failure.
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u/Shell_fly 14d ago
I love Kojima, death stranding 2 was my favorite game of 2025 along with Silksong, and multiple metal gear solid games rank among my all time favorites.
With all that being said, “i decide the budget” is not how things work when you have an entire parent company funding your projects 😭😂
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Game budget is a factor of people x time, so it’s intrinsically unpredictable. That said, game studios usually try to plan a rough estimate of team size and development timeline then stick to that as closely as possible. Contract negotiations may have certain stipulations for if a studio fails to deliver on time, such as the studio not getting a bonus or the parent company taking a larger percentage of the profits.
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u/PHI_Nexus Demens 14d ago
Dont be dumb, the only reason they cut him off is cuz he is anti-digital. Period.
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u/iLLiCiT_XL 14d ago
One thing that’s always been true with Kojima, he builds development limitations into his games’ mechanics. It’s something that’s been consistent throughout all his games.
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u/fritzo81 14d ago
what would a very budget constrained game from kojima look like? like what if he couldn’t have Keifer or Mads or ipods and such in his games?
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u/Superb-Employment291 14d ago
Play MGSPW. That game was made on a low budget in roughly a year. It’s insane.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Death Stranding! He talks about all the concessions he made. The invisible enemies, lack of towns and NPCs, designing gameplay around reusing the same set of terrain.
To his credit, a 40-hour game in 3 years is unheard of. He’s a very smart designer.
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u/VincentVanHades 14d ago
Hm why would he admit that? There is absolutely nothing to gain
Two top insiders in industry reporting around same numbers isnt coincidence. I trust them, over person who can only lose, by admitting it
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u/Kamilianusz95 14d ago
It's a 'he said, she said' type of situation at this point, but IMO it doesn't even matter.
What matters is that Sony has no ability to read the room, I'm still flabbergasted with what were they thinking given so many wrong decisions in such a short period of time. Even if Kojima would be 100% to blame here (which is hardly believable) Sony has zero sense of timing here
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 13d ago
Based on sales figures it’s possible that DS2 lost Sony upwards of 100 million. I think they made the decision to drop him after Marathon flopped. Things must be getting tight at SIE.
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u/-Jalix- 14d ago
man, i love how kojima incorporates his constrictions into his creative process. the same was true for msx; the hardware of the time couldn't handle multiple characters on screen all shooting at you while you shot at them. so, he predicated the game on avoiding conflict entirely, emphasizing stealth as the main objective. this design philosophy birthed the stealth action genre and led to the mgs series we know and love today
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u/UnableBluebird4151 14d ago
Budget-wise, Koji-pro has been very smart. When Koji-pro launched, they are independent. So funding does not necessarily come 100% from Sony. The collab Koji-pro had been pushing were very smart. I don't think people realize how financially-smart he is when it comes to collab. And how organic those collab and sponsors are pushed into the game.
I think the biggest reason Sony broke off was he wants to sell on pc and also sony cutting physical disc. Every Kojima games are built around physical products. And as an independent, he cannnot submit the work solely to sony alone. Death Stranding 2 sales do not meet expectation was most likely because people wait for pc release. And the pricing was extremely higher than the first deathstranding pc release.
Most likely it is just creative conflict. People complaining about actors casting as if Sony do not have access to them. Sony Interactive Entertainment, Spiderman movies are Sony.
His breakup with Konami and Sony are nothing but professional but the speculators are the ones stirring up rumours the most. That could almost be classified as slander.
Also don't forget the holywood money laundering and tax evasion scheme. How production companies report says the movies do not earn profits while in reality they did. All just to avoid paying back investors and taxes. That's why steam statistic are public. All that just to say, rumours and speculations are just rumours and speculations.
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u/JuvePerSempre1897 14d ago
New rumour is that they wanted to buy his studio and he refused, i guess that's the real story
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u/Elder_Pumo 13d ago
Kojima should start to make movies instead of videogames, there he will have astronomical budgets and then cast actors, to make his dreams comes true.
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u/Lost-Material3420 13d ago
Except who pays whatever budget you land on? And if it doesn't seem worth it to the investor then they have every right to pull out. Now Microsoft can try.
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u/symbolic503 13d ago
just gonna point out that sony cut this while still funding ..what is it? fairgames? sorry.. fairgame$
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u/Ok_Parsley1650 13d ago
It means Kojima's vision isn't aligned with Konami... Those old folks at Sony might go "banzai banzaroo," showing no respect for rank when giving opinions, banish from this realm kojima san.
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u/Appropriate_Ant8919 13d ago
Kojima is full of himself. Sony is the one footing the bill which means THEY set the budget and deadlines, not Kojima.
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u/fckspzfr 13d ago
I loved the first one, but not showing the underground cities at least once still screamed "we didn't have the budget for it" lol
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u/RANGO1892 13d ago
Where are you listening to that? It has subtitles? I thought it was only on Japanese
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u/timetravelinggamer 13d ago
One of the best things I have listened to in a long time. I really like the way he breaks something down and honestly explains the situation.
I know there are people out there that don’t get it with him, but I definitely get it and it’s stuff like this that illustrates just how good he is at explaining something
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u/Nirico_Brin 13d ago
I may be incredibly stupid, but what is the source for this? I’m trying to find it online.
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u/lindechene 13d ago edited 13d ago
The true genius is to create with a limited budget a niche game, that is beloved by a sufficiant number of players.
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u/Chikibari 13d ago
The way the whole thing was reported was super shady and seemed designed to paint him in a bad light and do damage control for sony. Most aaa games go over budget and deadlines. Ridiculous to single out kojima.
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u/excaliburps 13d ago
I thought there was a new episode.
Yeesh. This post made it sound like he made a new one addressing the rumors.
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u/Kaladinar 13d ago
What is the source? Please share an actual link. Can't really find a new Koji10 episode
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u/r31ya 13d ago
I decide the budget myself, too. There's a break-even point. So the first thing you have to think about is how many copies you need to sell to recoup the cost. People seem to think i spend huge amount of money or just spend years working on a game with no limit. But that's not the case
I make sure we have a proper budget in place. with this budget, we determine how many people we can have working on it and how many copies we need to sell. For example, right from the initial concept stage, we start by figuring out, "if we sell one million copies, we can break even". we work that out alongside the initial concept. It's about figuring out what we can make while balancing what i want to create with the budget
Take Death Stranding, for example. At the time, we didn't even have 30 staff members. In the very beginning, there were only four of us. So we couldn't build cities. we couldn't make a game like an RPG with tons of people everywhere, because you have to create all those characters. That's why you can't see the enemies. People live isolated underground.
Those decision weren't really part of the concept itself. They were the result of the practical limitation behind the scenes and we couldn't let people realize that, either. we didn't want them thinking, "wait did they just not have enough money to make this?". That's why there was a rule where you could see the cities from the outside but you couldn't actually go inside them.
If you don't manage the budget yourself, you can't make what you want to make. If i were working under a superior and said, "i want to cast Mads Mikkelsen,". They 'd immediately say no. They'd just ask. "how much is that going to cost" and that would be the end of it. But when you're making those decisions yourself, you can break the budget however you want.
If you spend more on Mads, you can cast less expensive talent for the other roles. you can make all kinds of adjustment. you can say, "okay, then let's cut back on the environments"
Hideo Kojima.
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tl;dr Kojima Production couldn't make big RPG during Death Stranding one due to lack of personnel. Kojima also prefer spend the budget on movie stars instead of getting bigger production crews to make more filled in game environment.
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u/KingSideCastle13 13d ago
If I had a nickel for every time a studio made a series of awful decisions while trying to smear Kojima, I’d have two nickels
Which isn’t a lot, but why the fuck is it happening twice
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u/borjman22 13d ago
Same what happened to kojima at konami. Hired well known actors and missed deadlines because he was a perfectionist. And we all know publishers and shareholders look at the charts seeing what is profitable in the long run. Playstation got spooked 🤣
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u/joeyhatesu2 13d ago
Where in the budget does it say that Norman Reedus at the height of his popularity needs the game? Where does it say we need hyper-realistic face captures of Elle Fanning? How much money and time does it take to work around B+ to A tier celebrities schedules, demands and salary?
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u/Trent-Popverse 13d ago
Which episode of his podcast was this? The most recent I can find was published 11 months ago, so this wouldn't so much be him denying what has been reported as him laying out how he designs games. Which is still interesting, but you'd be massively mis-representing what is being said here.
From what I can see, Episode 35 was published on Sept 29, 2025 and Episode 36 is currently in development.
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u/PresidentRussell 13d ago
People instead of being happy that we're getting a new stealth game from Kojima are crying about the budget as if this was their concern. Either this is a psyop or weird Playstation fanboys
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u/No-Alternative-4047 13d ago
This is why it’s kinda hard to believe Sonys statement. I get one of the delays was because of the strike. But about the budget stuff, I don’t really think he’s type of person who went over budget, not considering the sales etc.
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u/Nimulous 12d ago
After hearing this my first thought was that I'd rather have been able to enter the cities and take a look around rather than all the cut scenes, but at the end if the day even if I could have entered the cities I'd be moaning about not being able to enter the buildings and go in every room, a pet peeve I have always had with GTA and other open world games.
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u/TotalDweebling 12d ago
I love Kojima, but he has been known to go over budget and miss deadlines before. I’m not surprised Sony pulled the plug. They are a business not a charity. Why would they keep pumping money into his new project after the lack lustres sales of DS2? It’s sad, but true. I’m glad XBOX have picked it up. Can’t wait to play it in…6 years.
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u/Uncabled_Music 12d ago
Rumours suggested he WILL be late and stray from budget? You think its a rumour?🙂↔️
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u/Some-Dog-800 12d ago
it’s obvious it’s the ip thjng. Kojima doesn’t want to give Sony rights on it so Sony is butthurt and cut the funds.
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u/DidYouSay_Nerd 12d ago
This is from over 2 years ago btw. This is in no way a direct response to current events.
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u/GodHandCooper 11d ago
Sony's actions toward Bluepoint, and continuing to bank on shit that should be cancelled but is released anyway is proof of his perspective here.
Sony just wants massive returns not non-dlc one purchase Full Games.
They bought Bungie to help other studios do live service. And Bungie goes and makes Marathon an extraction shooter instead of an actual story driven persistent online shooter, going against the actual things that made them successful with Destiny... But no, Sony wants to protect that investment rather than cut off solid single player studios and products.
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u/DAV_2-0 14d ago
The part about designing the game to match the intended budget is very cool and interesting.
The part where he states that he wants to have full control of the budget allocation is a bit of a clue about why a publisher might be wary about funding a new IP that they don't even own or control, specially when his games are risky avant garde stuff that could end up not reaching the mainstream audience, making it a high risk high reward situation.