What Is Hideo Kojima’s Xbox Game, OD? Everything We Know About It and the “Knock” Trailer

Hideo Kojima has given us our first real look at OD, his brand new horror game for Xbox, and we are now able to start piecing some stuff together. Hideo Kojima has always been one of the most lucrative minds in gaming, making him a valuable asset to Konami for decades. However, Kojima and Konami parted ways after Metal Gear Solid 5 due to internal fallout, leading Kojima to go fully independent. The developer partnered up with PlayStation for a deal on his first new IP known as Death Stranding, but he wasn’t a PlayStation employee by any means. This allowed him to explore other opportunities with Google Stadia (remember that?) and eventually Xbox.

Hideo Kojima announced his partnership with Xbox in 2022 and eventually revealed the game was called OD the end of 2023. Of course, he was working on Death Stranding 2 throughout all of this, so it seemed to be in the very early stages of development and, but now, it’s becoming more of a priority for Kojima as it becomes his primary project. With that said, we’ve rounded up everything we could about what exactly OD is.

What Is Hideo Kojima’s Xbox Horror Game, OD?

The journey for Hideo Kojima’s horror game, OD, goes back to 2020. In May 2020, Hideo Kojima revealed he was very upset because he had a game cancelled. This would’ve been just months after the release of Death Stranding and obviously wasn’t Death Stranding 2, but Kojima didn’t share any details beyond is displeasure over the matter.

In February 2021, VGC reported that Google Stadia, Google’s now defunct cloud-based gaming company, was having a tumultuous time that resulted in numerous projects being scrapped or outright rejected after a proposal. One of these projects was reportedly an episodic horror game from Hideo Kojima that was rejected by Stadia GM Phil Harrison. Kojima reportedly wanted to make use of cloud technology for the game, but details are scarce as to what that might have looked like.

In summer 2022, Kojima announced that he was partnering with Xbox on a brand new game, but didn’t go any further than that. Some speculated that Kojima was reviving his pitched Stadia game since Xbox is a leading force when it comes to cloud gaming and Microsoft is innovating a lot in the space. It’s possible that Xbox was a better fit than PlayStation for whatever ambitions he has for OD due to all of the technology that Microsoft possesses.

The first real trace of OD as we know it leaked back in fall 2022. A screen recording of a playtest for the game, known as Overdose at the time, was leaked. A player can be seen seemingly playing the game on their phone and controlling a character played by actress Margaret Qualley who worked with Kojima on Death Stranding. The character explores some kind of spooky abandoned building and reacts to noises and potentially things the player can’t even see.

A year of silence followed before Kojima officially confirmed OD was the new game and would feature Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier as three of the characters. Qualley was absent from the announcement, so it’s possible she isn’t in the game anymore. Kojima also took this opportunity to reveal that he was working with horror writer/director Jordan Peele on OD, echoing his experience of teaming up with Guillermo del Toro on the ill-fated Silent Hills.

Kojima put his head down on Death Stranding 2 after that, only offering brief teases of what OD would be over the last two years. He noted that OD is risky and a challenge, claiming it’s not like any other game out there. This only fueled speculation about what exactly Kojima is cooking and if it’s something that relies on the cloud to be made. In June 2025, Kojima shipped Death Stranding 2 and turned his focus to OD and his future PS6 game Physint.

OD’s Knock Trailer Explained

Hideo Kojima’s OD got its first proper trailer in September 2025, revealing that the game will be made on Unreal Engine 5. The game boasts life-like graphics and shows Lillis’ character in some kind of apartment, lighting candles around a shrine of some kind. A bunch of text with redacted words appears on screen which has given people major PT vibes. It’s extremely unlikely this is some kind of secret revival of Silent Hills given Kojima’s relationship with Konami appears to still be fractured, but it doesn’t mean he can’t utilize some of his concepts from that game.

Kojima noted after the trailer, which was called “Knock”, which is apparently the subtitle for the part of the game Kojima is directing. Jordan Peele will direct his own, separate chapter of the game which is based on a different kind of “fear”. Kojima claims that he is scared of big knocking sounds, which is why his section is based around a woman who hears a persistent knock at the door. This definitely suggests this is the rumored episodic horror game that Kojima pitched to Stadia and that different directors will put their own spin on OD.

Kojima put an emphasis on scanning real environments for OD as well, stating that he wants to go to the scariest places around the world and scan them into the game. He joked that he wanted to scan a real life ghost and get an award for it as well.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer stated that the company is working closely with Kojima Productions on OD and teased innovations in storytelling and gameplay. He also stated that they want to bring OD to “all players, everywhere.” That could suggest OD will be available on PS5 as well as Xbox or even be on mobile devices thanks to cloud gaming.

“What an amazing I’d say maybe teaser, or a glimpse,” Spencer said. “When I first saw it I saw something new, something slightly sinister, but also something that was extremely Kojima-san. OD is bold, it’s unique, and it’s unmistakably from this studio, which is just incredible. We’re deeply supporting the production, it’s our technical work on Unreal that we’re doing with the team, both with the kind of flashy what you’re seeing on the screen, but also a lot of behind the scenes work. We have one goal in mind, which is to bring Kojima-san’s vision to life for all players, everywhere, and we can’t wait for players to experience it when it is ready.”

It’s unclear when OD will release, but it seems like the game has been moving along steadily while Kojima finished Death Stranding 2. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about it at The Game Awards in December as Kojima frequently makes appearances at that event. If not, we may have to wait for Summer Game Fest next year.

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