Death Stranding 2 PS5 Enters Crunch Period, Hideo Kojima Questions How Much Longer He Can Do It For

Just a thought......maybe if his games weren't simply Written by Hideo Kojima, Directed by Hideo Kojima, Produced by Hideo Kojima, Edited by Hideo Kojima, Storyboarded by Hideo Kojima, etc, he could focus on the important aspects of game development while sourcing some of the more mundane tasks to his team. But I think he just likes seeing his name so much on his titles.

Doesn’t he own the studio? Then surely he doesn’t need to crunch to meet a release window? Just make a bit less money instead.

Only Kojima can decide when to call it quits. I hope he sticks with it for a long time to come, but only if he wants to. He's given so much creativity to the games industry, that if he wanted to rest on his laurels, he'd have every right to; however, something tells me that if he "retired," he'd get restless and be back before you knew it.

At 61 you do feel like we're nearing the end of his career. It's sad to think about but how many games do some of these guys have left in them? Kojima, Ken Levine, Neil Druckman and so on, you have to savour what these people do! They won't be making games forever and these dev cycles are so long now.

@thefourfoldroot1 yeah and also why does crunch even exist if you can decide the launch date? If it’s pressure from the publisher then I’d imagine he has enough sway to just say “it’s ready when it’s ready.”

dragon quest creator yuji horii is 71 kojima got plenty of years left..

uh oh, crunch if never a good look for a studio...

@Steeleye50 he literally does that. He's not the sole person doing writing, producing, etc.

Kind of crazy he even needs that much time to begin with, considering how fast Kojima Production was developing the first Death Stranding.

Just delay it. Yeesh.

You can do it, Kojima! I believe in you! And when you’re ready to retire, I will wish you well.

I hope Kojima already preparing his successor. I personally want he keeps making games but i know sooner or later Kojima will retire.

@Steeleye50 He has a team helping him and he did credited everyone of them.

Can't he just have his brain grafted into some sort of robotic game making ninja?

If he self published his games, he could run on his own schedule. But then he'd have to spend his own money, and he doesn't have the guts to do that.

@Steeleye50 said it for years

Kojima better start nourishing talent to to take over as directors that are ready to continue his studio once he steps back.

I think he has looked a bit unfocused since DS1 came out. Makes sense he had a point to prove with that but now he is taking on more projects, movies, influencing, columns, podcasts, writing.

Also, I don't think he means crunch in the gaming way but more that final stretch where focus is completely necessary.

It’s obvious people hate crunch, and for good reason, but I love crunch at my job. It’s so exciting to pull those hours with your team and execute at a high level.

i'm glad kojima has been given the opportunity to create the game of his dreams. unfortunately for me, death stranding wasn't exactly my kind of game or what i want to see from him. hopefully kojima will return to the stealth genre one last time (has already been rumoured for his next game)... but if it doesn't work out that way, that is fine as well. he has given more than enough to the gaming industry.

People only seeing crunch as a negative shows the lack of knowledge for creative fields.

Consistently baffles me evertime this topic comes up.

Uh oh! Crunch period??? How are the performance artists on Twitter gonna react to this one????

@Jacko11 haha yeah - I think it’s just mostly people who don’t have any real life experience.

Nearly every job is going to have times during the year where you might have to work extra hours for a few weeks to get something done. If you work for a good company, you’ll get rewarded for it.

It's alright Kojima, working Overdose is bad for health, take care of yourself and family~ 🙏

@Steeleye50 But then would they be as great? Death Stranding sat on my shelf in gamin backlog for almost a year. Once I started playing, I kicked myself for not starting sooner.

@Enuo "and he doesn't have the guts to do that"

Talk is cheap. Do YOU have the guts to build your own video games company from zero and self publish?

Do YOU have guts like Kojima where he made a big loan to restart Kojima Pro after left Konami despite he doesn't have a building, staff, and even a game in the works that guarantee he can return the money?
https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/10/hideo-kojima-owes-death-stranding-success-bank-manager-fan-10897774/

Not a fan of death stranding, I would rather have action espionage.

@tselliot It could, he just really needs to learn to delegate more. I put a good 15 hours into DT but couldn't get into it. I think that has more to do with me being a former mailman though!

@Orpheus79V I understand, my point is he is doing too much and burning himself out. One of the first things I learned when entering management was you have to learn to delegate things. I think Kojima is obsessed though being a control freak and seeing his name on everything. Not knocking him, I've been a fan of his work for decades, just I think he gets a little extreme with control.

@EchoRange I've been a fan of his for decades but I think his obsessiveness over control is probably a detriment to his team as well as his overall mental health.

@PuppetMaster I know he has a team, I am just saying he does too much and is too obsessed with controlling every aspect of game design. It's not a novel or a album, games are incredibly collaborative and Kojima seems intent being a control freak.

@Steeleye50 It's his game and he wants it to be a high quality product. So it's normal he wants to control every aspect of the game to maintain the quality and his team clearly understand what he wants.

What i don't understand here is people like you who speak as if you're working directly under Kojima and spread some bullsh*t like Kojima some egomaniac who doesn't care about what his team wants or doesn't give credit his team contribution.

@PuppetMaster the article is about Kojima stating that the process is "both physically and mentally" draining. And I'm not making any assumptions since I've been a Kojima fan for DECADES and have read hundreds of articles and interviews with him over the years. I love his work (well, not so much DS) but he's not omnipotent. I am saying the game and his overall health could be improved if he could learn to delegate tasks better. I never said he didn't care about his team or their contribution, but at the same time watch any game trailer or game of his and watch how many times his name is in the credits and displayed repeatedly. He even hates being called Kojima San and insists on being referred to as Kojima Kantoku (director), his reasoning being his desire to be recognized more for his creative leadership role in the video game industry rather than just a generic title of respect like "San."