It’s safe to say that Hideo Kojima is one of the most distinct personalities in the gaming industry. Along with being the chief creative force behind such titles as the Metal Gear Solid series and Death Stranding, Kojima has also become known for being one of the more outspoken developers out there, and he illustrated this this week by not mincing words with his opinion on digital media.
Media is constantly changing and evolving to suit changing tastes, and the ways people access it are changing most of all. Across mediums like video games, movies, and TV, this has become apparent with how prominent digital media has become in the past decade. One need only look at how game sales are overwhelmingly digital these days to see how the age of CDs, DVDs, and game cartridges is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
One could argue that this is for the better, since it has made media more accessible than ever before, but Kojima feels differently. On his personal Twitter account recently, he showed off a new CD that he bought, taking an opportunity to bemoan how “CDs will be gone soon.” He then followed up in a couple of tweets to vent his frustration over how individuals will eventually be unable to own digital media “on their own initiative.”
Elaborating further, Kojima expressed concern over how any “major change or accident in the world,” whether it be upheavals in governments, trends, or even ideas, could bring the risk of people being cut off from their digital media. Although Kojima’s concerned over major events, smaller-scale things can prove to be just as detrimental to consumers’ ability to access digital titles. This is especially true with video games, since the shutdown of an online storefront is enough to render many older digital games completely inaccessible.
It’s a problem that some fans of Kojima are familiar with, thanks to P.T., the influential playable teaser for Kojima’s canceled Silent Hills project. After his departure from Konami, the teaser was removed from the PlayStation Store, forcing fans to keep it on their hard drives, lest they risk losing it forever. While fans have found unofficial ways to redownload P.T. over the years, the fact remains that, for the most part, it no longer exists for new fans to try out.
In the last decade, consumers have flocked to the convenience of media that can be accessed from the internet and doesn’t take up physical space. At the same time, though, this comes at the cost of personal ownership and the risk of losing their favorite titles. The storefronts that games like P.T. exist on can delist titles or shut down entirely, and subscription services like Netflix and Xbox Game Pass can remove titles on what can appear to be a whim. As such, one can understand why people, Kojima included, would prefer physical media that, while less convenient, they can at least call their own.