HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY: Hideo Kojima turns 60 today.
August 24, 2023 marks Death Stranding’s director Hideo Kojima’s 60th birthday. Addressing fans on Twitter, the developer writes: “On August 24, I turned 60 years old and celebrated my 60th birthday. I have never thought that I would be celebrating my 60th birthday.” Kojima then goes on to say: “There is no retirement age or retirement in my way of life. I would like to continue ‘creating things’ for the rest of my life.”
The Metal Gear Solid developer then also thanked fans for their “continued support” over the years, and shared that one perk of turning 60 is that “I get to buy the tickets with senior price to see the cinema,” which is a wonderful way to think about aging. And thought borrowed from Johan Huizinga, the one written on the site, but which Kojima has made his own and infused – perhaps a little too literally – in his Death Stranding, the first child out of the wedding with Konami. Sam, who is an avatar for us who are both Homo Ludens playing deliveries and, in doing so, Homo Faber rebuilding the USA one ladder and one rope at a time. Then well, there – as in all previous works – you can smell the typical smell of the cinema. References, homages to Hollywood have never been lacking in Kojima’s stylistic signature from Metal Gear (1987) onwards.
An intention that Hideo Kojima wanted to make clear – as if there were any further need – between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 when, fresh from his ‘divorce’ with Konami, he founded his new Kojima Productions. His idea is there, on the vision page of his studio: “playing is not just a pastime, it is the primordial basis of imagination and creation. Let’s face it: those who play (Man playing) are also those who create (Homo Faber)”.
