Kojima Discusses the Problem With Outsourcing in Gaming, Plus His Role as a Developer
As the 'godfather' of the Metal Gear Solid franchise continues his work on his upcoming debut [...]
As the "godfather" of the Metal Gear Solid franchise continues his work on his upcoming debut title Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima took a few moments out of his busy schedule to discuss a little of his own philosophy about himself as a game developer, while also addressing how he feels many companies are making a critical misstep during the process of game creation.
The Kojima Productions founder took to his own personal Twitter account to talk about the "hallway" of game creation, film comparisons to his own work, as well as how he sees himself professionally. Though the 17-Tweet long correspondence seemed a little out of the blue, it did offer some incredibly interesting insight into the legend himself.
Game creation is different from film making. Let’s say we imagine “a hallway the player is meant to walk down according to the game design.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 5, 2017
One particular part during his Twitterpades that stuck out was his criticism of companies looking towards outsourcing during the critical developmental stages of game creation. In true Kojima form, the "call out" was still tastefully done and offers a different insight into an immensely hot topic.
"An action game can never be completed by ordering from a blueprint and assembling parts off a factory line … when everything is outsourced, the parts that come back just don't fit together."
The inclusion of outsourcing isn't particularly new but what is interesting about Kojima discussing this on such an open forum is that his previous employer has actively engaged in this practice themselves. Konami's Metal Gear series saw that work on Metal Gear Survive exercised the exact practice that Kojima himself talked about in his Tweets. Does that mean that was the intention? Not necessarily, but it is interesting to note the potential connection.
This particular topic has a pretty wide spectrum in terms of industry reaction. On one hand, the practice of outsourcing has seen a great deal of success in titles such as Undertale, while other titles were considered a huge miss. With the two opposing sides on the topic of outsourcing, which side do you fall on?