Kojima doubts over PS3

By Tom Bramwell Published 31 May, 2005

Weighs in on next-gen.

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has weighed in on the battle of the next generation consoles, stressing their diversity and cautioning that he is "not sure if everyone can live up to that high standard that Sony is expecting" on PlayStation 3 - the platform for which his Konami subsidiary Kojima Productions is developing the next Metal Gear Solid title.

Speaking in an online interview, Kojima-san said Xbox 360 was "a little bit more down to earth...so people maybe can join easily to start creating on the 360," while on the Nintendo Revolution front the DS connectivity and downloadable back catalogue give him "the impression that the developers could create games on less budget".

Kojima-san then launched into a lengthy analogy about having dinner to clarify his thoughts. "PS3 would be like a dinner you only have once a year or twice a year on your anniversary," he said, whereas Xbox 360 would be something you had "two or three times a month" and Revolution "is the kind of great dinner that you have every day at your home".

"The point is that they are all individualistic dinners," he said, and as a result it is all about choice. For Kojima-san, the next-generation conflict is about "how much the dinner will be...will it be worth the cost...where can I have this dinner".

You can read the full interview with Hideo Kojima on Boomtown.net here. The next-generation comments occur in the last section.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Rahul #1 7 years ago

    Let's hear a Eurogamer interpretation of what he was talking about, then. Go on.

  • JHuxley #2 7 years ago

    Uhh...whatever you say Kojima-san :|

  • Angrydarren #3 7 years ago

    The poor man has obviously gone insane.

  • Darkedge #4 7 years ago

    hmm. Drugs. Lots of drugs.

  • Blerk #5 7 years ago

    Heh - he's finally flipped.

    Too much Metal Gear Acid, probably. ;-)
    Edited by Blerk at 31/05/05 @ 10:30

  • space_ace #6 7 years ago

    i'm hungry

  • darrenBlake #7 7 years ago

    A simmilar analogy in current gen.

    Where to take your date:
    XBox An expensive french restaurant (where you take a blond money grabbing hoe to show off your money)
    PS2 Nice little italian restauran (Youre an average joe)
    NGC Homecooked chillie (You know what youre doing and will later impress your date by setting your farts on fire)

  • Lothar Hex #8 7 years ago

    Anybody get the feeling Kojima was REALLY hungry when he did this interview?

  • gylo #9 7 years ago

    Sorry to be a killjoy but when will Eurogamer find some original news. Kotaku reported this ages ago.

  • Burton2000 #10 7 years ago

    yeah he cud of bin hungry but it is a gud comparison i think

  • Donglebomb #11 7 years ago

    Come on, where's all the comments about Eurogamer being 'bias' because only PS3 was specifically mentioned in the headline? This thread won't feel complete until we've had some.

  • drumbaby #12 7 years ago

    Mmmmmm, din dins.....

  • captain-future #13 7 years ago

    Kojima is at least realistic... although his analogies are *strange*...

  • Markusdragon #14 7 years ago

    The point I laugh uncontrolably at is when he says "Or where can I have this dinner - number of restaurants, is it near my house or do I have to take a cab or train or bus?" I think he's completely lost the plot by that point. :p

  • Tweakmonkey #15 7 years ago

    Sorry to be a killjoy but when will Eurogamer find some original news. Kotaku reported this ages ago.

    It's news to me. Not everybody scours the web searching for breaking news...

  • redd #16 7 years ago

    Kojima from the i-view: "I actually haven’t started developing on the new consoles yet."

    mmmmkayyy

  • speedjack #17 7 years ago

    Translation :-

    PS3 = Very difficult and expensive to develop for.

    Xbox 360 = Not as difficult and expensive to develop for.

    Nintendo Revolution = Pot Noodle.

  • Khanivor #18 7 years ago

    Nice summing up speedjack!

  • bzzct #19 7 years ago

    on the Nintendo Revolution front the DS connectivity and downloadable back catalogue give him "the impression that the developers could create games on less budget"

    Anyone else fail to see the logic in that?

  • ST.. #20 7 years ago

    As MGS4 is on PS3 I think he's trying to promote the talents of his new production studio.

  • TR421 #21 7 years ago

    This is why language barriers are a good thing, it leads to all kinds of amusing analogies and phrases.
    Anyway, he is basically saying that the PS3 will be harder to code on and thus more expensive for developers.

  • darkmistx #22 7 years ago

    Or he could be saying PS3 is more powerful, therefore developers will need to work harder to get the most out of it.
    Edited by darkmistx at 31/05/05 @ 13:45

  • smelly #23 7 years ago

    Erm.. its down to costs isnt it? If you want to compete with people and create games which are to the quality of that killzone demo at e3 all the way through.. the developers are going to have to spend shit loads of money and loads of development time.

    This makes the games a BIG risk to make.. if it doesnt sell, yer company is screwed.

    It could make more sense to take less of a risk and develop for the lower powered machines, where expectations arent so high.. After all.. it's how good the games are which matters, not how pretty the pixels are.

  • raikov #24 7 years ago

    Kojima's just simply pointing out that the development cycle for PS3 means that for a game to compete with others on the same console, it must have a longer development process to look the part, right? As opposed to a quicker development cycle for Xbox 360 due to its hardware, and with the Nintendo back catalogur readily available, there is a consistant flow of different (albeit older) games available consistantly. If not, I clearly got lost at the starters :)

    OT: I do like how EG reports on other sites and gives me a centralised hub to come to for news. Things as trivial as this don't need to be regergitated at the same rate as an important announcement, but provide some humour/trivia/food for thought (OK, thanks Kojima, you're making me hungry), and as long as the reviews and features maintain the same authority it's all good. I dare say that if you're on this page stressing that this is 'old news' that you really miss the point. Now, to get a bagel or something...
    Edited by raikov at 31/05/05 @ 14:38

  • The-Bodybuilder #25 7 years ago

    >""not sure if everyone can live up to that high standard that Sony is expecting" on PlayStation 3"

    Any bets he's talking about killzone 2?

  • Royal Fool #26 7 years ago

    I understand his analogy.

    No, really. I do.

  • Galvanizer #27 7 years ago

    I understand his analogy too.

    I hope this means more N5 support from him.

  • Mox #28 7 years ago

    I think what Hideo Kojima is trying to say is, "please don't ask me questions I can't answer for fear of annoying one of the console manufacturers."

  • brombeer #29 7 years ago

    Drugged, lazy and no personnel left I guess...Hey, who wants to learn something new at his age anyway? I don't...