Hideo always has his 10 minutes on Game Awards, why? Why other game devs don’t get that much recognition or screen time?
Because he invented Hideo games
“Why is Hideo Kojima so popular?”
“Why this is” is an explanation. “Why is this” is a question.
To actually answer the question:
Consistent novelty.
Metal Gear on MSX2 was a genre that didn’t exist yet, and which sounded boring when he proposed it. The real Metal Gear 2 built on that in ways that would still be noteworthy features in Metal Gear Solid. Snatcher and Policenauts were little more than visual novels, but they were well-executed. That’s largely thanks to Kojima insisting on artist-driven tools for scripting the exact timing of graphics, text, and music.
Metal Gear Solid fucked with the player by constantly breaking the fourth wall. MGS2 cranked that ten times higher, along with prescient comments on memetics and populist narratives. MGS3 was just polished as hell. MGS4 opens with fake commercials starring the voice actors and only gets weirder from there.
MGS5-- calling back to artist-driven tools, I recommend the article about the game’s rendering engine. They developed a little rectangle you can drop into a screenshot, and then however you adjust the screenshot in Photoshop, copy-pasting that little rectangle back into the game will perfectly match whatever you did. Kojima productions have a certain “just solve the problem” vibe behind a lot of their technical direction. MGS 1-3 had too much focus on the minimap radar, so MGS4 has a holographic ring around your feet. Why? How? Who gives a shit, it’s a video game.
P.T. was a horror game demo set entirely in one hallway. And it was terrifying. And weird. And full of promise. So when Kojima handed that gift to Konami, reviving one of their beloved franchises, with several big names on-board thanks to his weird industry connections… and then Konami booted his ass out the door… people noticed.
Death Stranding is the ultimate illustration of why he became well-known and why he remains well-known. It’s a ridiculous product. It forces comically long sequences that are not technically gameplay. Its writing is completely bonkers and longwinded. But every aspect is deliberate. It is that way, on purpose. A premise that sounds boring becomes interesting because it’s well-executed. Balance and stamina aren’t floating UI elements; they’re represented in your character’s movement, so you keep your eyes on your dude.
Basically, Kojima is the sort of lead who can insist on a ten-minute opening cutscene, thirty seconds of actual gameplay, and then another eight minutes of cutscene, and still have people’s attention.
He makes good games. Polished ones, too.
Even MGS5, which was pretty clearly pushed out before he wanted it to be and broke him up with Konami, was extremely technically sound, just not filled out as much as it should have been.
I’m still salty about MGSV
Me, too.
It’s still a solid game, but the unrealized potential is extremely obvious.
Even disliking it, I still saw how stylish and imaginative it was, akin to the OG MGS. The last half and parts of gameplay were very unferwhelming thanks to Konami. I wonder how it could’ve ended if MGS5 have been given the time wasted on that zombie survival flick.
For me it was basically that every encounter should have been multiplied by three. Those little checkpoints being two soldiers aren’t worth it, and it’s the same up the line. Even the big stuff almost always feels empty.
Sniper Elite 4 and 5 are comparable in terms of stealth mechanic quality, but their bases are actually filled in and they’re better games for it. MGS5 could have been that, and I’m pretty sure Kojima wanted it to be that, but they pulled the plug and shipped a partial game instead.
More devs make good games, polished ones. Why are they not there then if that is the reason?
Probably because not that many devs have being making good, polished games since the 80s
Pretty much any one with a comparable track record directing iconic games does have that recognition, though.
The list of developers that known is small because the list of developers that have that level of success is small.
Because in a industry dominated by yearly rehashed ideas like CoD or AC or Battlefield, Kojima spends time and resources creating new, novel ideas and taking the artistic medium (yes, games are art despite what capital G Gamers want to say) to new and exciting and interesting places.
Outside japan Sam Lake comes to mind too.
Why other game devs don’t get that much recognition or screen time?
Probably because Geoff Keighle and Hideo Kojima are great friends. Game Awards announced 30 seconds limit for speeches, but those only apply to everyone else, not friends.
Ads, “world premieres,” and celebrity cameos were certainly the focus of the event.
