Highlights
- Kojima Productions is supposedly working on a horror game for Xbox that will utilize cloud technology to create detailed and immersive environments.
- The rumored horror game should take inspiration from P.T. , a cult classic demo, in its use of ambient horror rather than relying on explicit gore.
- The game may feature a star-studded cast, similar to Death Stranding , which would enhance the ability to create a horrifying experience without the need for aggressive threats.
Kojima Productions has a lot in the works right now. With Death Stranding 2 announced and a live-action Death Stranding film on the way in collaboration with Hammerstone Studios, the iconic video game auteur and his studio have their hands full. Beyond this, however, Kojima Productions is working on another game for the Xbox family of systems, one that promises to utilize cloud technology to push the boundaries of the medium. While little is known about the title, leaks have suggested it will be a horror game. Kojima's Silent Hills is never going to see the light of day, but this is the perfect opportunity for the director to return to some of what he came up with for P.T.
Founded in 2015 as a successor to the production team within Konami, Kojima Productions is the brainchild of its namesake, Hideo Kojima. So far the studio has only released one title, Death Stranding. While Death Stranding is not a horror game, it has many horror elements, and its difficult opening hours can be quite frightening. Other than this, Hideo Kojima's only foray into the horror genre has been with P.T., the demo for Silent Hills, a game that was canceled soon after its announcement. This cancelation and P.T.'s removal from the PlayStation store granted P.T. a cult classic status.
P.T. Nails Environmental Horror
Despite Kojima and his production house's relative inexperience in the horror genre, P.T. is a master class in ambient horror, and inspired many similar games. The demo alone is a strong indicator that the famed auteur is primed to shake the genre up. When players begin P.T. they walk through a doorway into a hall. A radio plays, telling of a man who murdered his wife and kids. The loudest sound however is the players own footsteps, which sound eerily like heartbeats. As players reach the end of the hallway, they travel through a set of doors and the hallway loops. Each trip down the corridor introduces new puzzles and becomes gradually more unsettling.
There isn't a tremendous amount of gore or explicit imagery in the demo; instead it relies on ambient noise, lighting, and ghostly figures. The whole game is more or less relegated to a single hallway, which means P.T. does a lot with very little. Kojima Production's rumored horror game should use this as a stepping off point. Rather than going for an overly grotesque visual language, the game should expand on the ambient environmental horror of the Silent Hills demo. P.T. has become a beloved horror game in its own right, and while its vision was never fully realized, it can live on through Kojima Productions' rumored horror game.
Kojima Production's Horror Game Has A Lot Of Potential
Leaks of Kojima Productions' Xbox game have suggested that it will be a horror game titled Overdose starring Margaret Qualley, the actress behind Death Stranding's Mama. While Qualley is not as well known as Norman Reedus, this suggests that like Death Stranding, the leaked Xbox game will be star-studded. Having a cast of top-notch actors like Qualley would further enable the new game to lean into the more subtle and subdued horror aspects that the Silent Hills demo thrived in utilizing. Excellent performances will bolster Kojima Productions' ability to create a horrifying game that, like P.T., is able to scare players with little need for gore or explicit threats.
While almost nothing is known about Kojima Productions' Xbox title, one of the most discussed elements is that it will be utilizing Microsoft's cloud technology. This technology has only seen limited use, most notably in Microsoft Flight Simulator, allowing the developer to stream textures and real-time weather data for the whole globe to players instead of requiring a huge download size. This could hint that Kojima Productions' cloud driven title will feature a vast number of tremendously detailed environments. The feature could also be used to emulate real world conditions at the players' location, creating a truly eerie experience. Because of the power of cloud technology in crafting environmental elements, borrowing from P.T.'s use of environmental horror makes sense for Kojima Productions' Xbox game.