Kojima says gamers are happy with what they’ve got. Are you?

When big time game developers give their opinion on something, we tend to take notice to the point where we’ll at least hear them out. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima is a bigger-time game developer than most so, when we vents his concerns over the state of the industry, we take notice.
Kojima believes that only a few games are now capable of hitting the big sales figures, and the number of first-person shooters and sequels demonstrate that audiences are happy with they’ve got and want more of the same.
Further, he believes the Japanese arm of the industry is ill-equipped to compete at the highest level.
“It’s much more competitive now: if you look at triple-A titles on a worldwide scale there’s maybe only ten really big games that can get gamers’ attention, and I’m not sure how Japan can compete on that level,” he said.
“I think it’s more consumer demand – right now, consumers are happy with what they have. First-person shooters sell like crazy, so there’s not really a strong demand for anything else, and that’s why [original ideas] stop being made.
“People are satisfied with making minor upgrades and tweaking things here and there – as long as that’s the landscape, it will keep on happening. I don’t see a problem necessarily, but at the same time it is nice to see new things come.”
Kojima believes new ideas can take hold, but it’s a more difficult task to convince consumers to try them now than it ever was.
“Maybe for new ideas, the way to do it is [by] releasing things via online services first and then seeing how people react to that.
“Or even if you’re making something from a game-design perspective that’s completely different, you could tie it to an existing franchise – like even if it had the Metal Gear Solid title, it could be completely different.
“Maybe you can make a Batman game that has the Batman title, but you can still be free with what you make the game into. Making something that’s completely new – where the gameplay, the characters, the world, everything is completely from scratch – that’s very hard to realise in this day and age.”
Kojima is currently working on the top-secret ‘Project Ogre’ as well as lead producing Platinum Games’ Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance.
Source: Official PlayStation Magazine