Hideo Kojima Abandoned A Game After It Was Too Similar To A Huge TV Show
Hideo Kojima is arguably the best game writer in the world. The man had been busy working on a new concept but abandoned it when it came out too similar to a huge TV show.
The Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima never stops with surprises; only a few weeks ago, he made revealed his partnership with Xbox, and now he revealed that he worked on a concept that ended up being too similar to Amazon’s The Boys, which is currently airing its Season 3. However, Kojima also revealed that, upon seeing the series, he decided to put the project on hold, but now that the rabbit has escaped the hat, the leads on The Boys want Hideo to make a tie-in game.
According to IGN, Kojima said he was brainstorming the project for quite some time, with Mads Mikkelsen — with whom he worked on Death Stranding — picked out as the game’s lead. However, just as he was about to start working on the project, the Season One of The Boys was released, and after watching a few episodes, the legendary game developer put his own concept on hold. In addition, he also stopped watching the series due to significant similarities between the two, though Hideo Kojima said that there were differences between the narrative setting and tricks.
Hideo Kojima’s concept, per his own statement, would’ve included a male/female buddy thing with a special detective’s squad facing off against legendary heroes behind the curtains of the public eye. This is rather similar to The Boys, which tells a story about a team of regular humans tasked with “policing” (read “violently killing”) superpowered individuals who aren’t so virtuous as described in other comic books. For example, the series Homelander has a power set much like Superman, but without the Kryptonian’s constricting moral code. In fact, he’s an outright terrible person.
Kojima hasn’t specified whether the “canceled” project relates to a video game, a cinematic release, or some other media format, but it’s safe to assume that it would’ve been a video game, despite implications that it’s not currently being worked on. As stated above, Hideo Kojima is currently working on an Xbox project and a long-anticipated sequel to a massively successful 2019’s Death Stranding video game — his first brainchild after his fallout with Konami.
But here’s the most interesting part of this news; The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, responded to Hideo Kojima’s tweets by saying that he’s a huge fan of the creative legend and that he wants to collaborate with Kojima on a video game adaptation of the series. Actor Anthony Star, who’s portraying the previously mentioned Homelander, second motioned the showrunner’s statement about the proposed collaboration on a tie-in The Boys game.
Whether or not that comes to pass remains to be seen. Video game adaptations of cinematic and television releases have a history of being very lousy. We admit that it’s nearly impossible for Hideo Kojima to make a bad game, but we also doubt that Amazon would grant him the levels of creative freedom he would need to make the game work. It’s entirely possible that we would’ve witnessed another Sonic Origins story, but with Hideo’s name attached to the headlines — that would be a really disappointing sight.
