14 DAY TRIAL // The gaming industry has, like a lot of other areas of entertainment, a few prominent figures, people who shaped the whole idea of gaming and brought innovations to the realms of story telling and gameplay, pushing them to a whole new level. Such a man is Hideo Kojima, best know for the extremely popular Metal Gear Solid franchise, a series that set a benchmark for stories in games.
The Japanese game developer has recently talked about his own company, Kojima Productions, and he says that 2009 will be a turning point in its history. He goes on to say that the game studio will approach titles oriented at a more global market, shifting the focus from Japan to other territories, like Europe or North America, and creating games that will appeal to all of these markets.
“We're currently reviewing everything - from the team structure to tools and our staff - in order to make Kojima Productions a team that can challenge foreign creators and software houses. I've come to understand that the way we've made games up until now won't translate globally, and I've come to think that I need to make Kojima Productions a team that can compete alongside the rest of the world.”
The reputed game developer, talking with Japanese game magazine Famitsu, emphasizes the fact that 2009 will be a “year of change, a year where we start from zero again.” He then makes a parallel between how Western studios make games and the way Hollywood makes movies, which appeal to a whole world, not only to their native country.
Lately we've seen quite a lot of Japanese game companies that have begun to target global markets, as Square Enix has already started to partner with Western publishers, like Ubisoft, to bring games to Japan, and with Gas Powered Games to bring Supreme Commander to all countries. Let's hope that Kojima still has a lot of creativity left in order to make new games.