It's always nice to hear Hideo Kojima talking. The creator of Metal Gear Solid was featured this morning in a keynote at Develop Brighton, alongside Mark Cerny (known as Lead Architect of PlayStation 4, Director on Knack and now Technical Producer on Death Stranding).
Inevitably, he dropped a few interesting tidbits on his next project. Kojima said that so far, in his previous projects, he always had to give up or compromise on something to get things done. However, with the help of Mark Cerny he thinks he'll be able to get past that usual issue; as a result, he's confident that Death Stranding (which is something he labeled as completely new, that no one has seen so far in games) will be his best work yet.
Cerny and him have been close for twenty years, apparently, and Kojima admitted that he learned a lot about working with hardware & software through this friendship. Then, he talked about his decision to begin a career as a game designer.
As some already know, Kojima is a major movie buff. However, he couldn't make movies where he lived which led him to games, another medium that could help him tell stories. Much like David Cage, he believes that with the help of technology it's increasingly possible to embed emotions into games; in fact, he went as far as saying that we'll reach a point where it will be easier to reach out emotionally online or through games than with people in real life.
Virtual Reality gives a different emotion to the player and thus opens new paths for game design. It will let us us view in 360 degrees, which will make a big difference in terms of design. According to Kojima, VR has the potential to change life itself, not just games.
Death Stranding, which has significant investment from Sony, won't be released any time soon as the development team is still in the process of choosing an engine. The game should launch first on PlayStation 4 and then on PC, according to Kojima's original plan.