During a recent interview with IGN Japan about the new studio office, Hideo Kojima was candid about how the pandemic affected Kojima Productions while trying to wrap up the Directors Cut and PC version of Death Stranding. There was even mention of a short film that got shelved because of the Covid pandemic.
Hideo Kojima mentioned how everything changed during the planning process for the Director’s Cut and PC release but was thankful that this was not a new title they were working on and were rather trying to close up loose ends. While working from the studio was ideal, everything was shifted to remote working, which made the process more challenging.
“Almost all of our meetings were via video calls from the start of the pandemic, and we even did performance-capture work remotely,” Kojima said while talking about how remote working affected his staff and studio. He mentioned that all his staff became external members of the studio during that time.
Talking about his shelved short film, Kojima casually mentioned it as “the first dip into Hollywood”, with a screenplay that he wrote himself. The script for the video still exists, and he mentioned that the studio doesn’t intend on making it a reality anymore right now.
The Pandemic also seems to deeply affect how Death Stranding 2 would be portrayed. Kojima decided to rewrite the themes after facing this difficult time. He mentioned that while the characters were not affected by the pandemic restrictions, the players have gone through it, so it made sense to rewrite the story to fit the times to help resonate with players. He concluded the importance of connections in real life, like it was with Death Stranding 1, and how the pandemic brought out a different perspective to light.
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