Metallic Gear Strong and Demise Stranding developer Hideo Kojima says he was “shocked” to learn that the creators of The Matrix needed him to develop a recreation primarily based on the franchise, insisting: “nobody ever instructed me such a dialog had taken place.”
Yesterday, IGN reported that The Wachowskis, the writers and administrators behind the Matrix motion pictures, as soon as requested Metallic Gear creator Hideo Kojima to design a Matrix online game, however writer Konami reportedly turned it down. “The Wachowskis had been large followers of Kojima,” Konami Digital Leisure VP of licensing, Christopher Bergstresser, mentioned. “So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who nonetheless works with Kojima), and I had been on the Konami HQ, and we received a name from the Wachowskis, who needed to come back in and meet with Kojima. So that they did!
“The 2 of them got here in with their idea artist, and successfully they mentioned to Kojima, ‘We actually need you to do the Matrix recreation. Are you able to do this?’ Aki translated this into Japanese for Mr. Kitaue, and Kitaue simply checked out them and instructed them plainly, ‘No.’ We did nonetheless get to benefit from the Matrix Japanese premiere and afterparty, although.”
Nonetheless, in a message posted to social media in English, Kojima mentioned that whereas he and The Wachowskis had been “mutual followers and exchanged emails,” he did not know they had been hoping he’d tackle a recreation adaptation of the film, and “there might’ve been a method to make it work” regardless of his dedication to Metallic Gear Strong 2: Sons of Liberty.
I used to be shocked to see on social media that the Wachowski sisters had “supplied me a Matrix recreation undertaking!” again in 1999. In all these 26 years, nobody ever instructed me such a dialog had taken place. On the time, we had been mutual followers and exchanged emails. The Matrix hadn’t been… pic.twitter.com/4P10P9eEfT
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) October 29, 2025
“I used to be shocked to see on social media that the Wachowski sisters had ‘supplied me a Matrix recreation undertaking!’ again in 1999,” he wrote. “In all these 26 years, nobody ever instructed me such a dialog had taken place. On the time, we had been mutual followers and exchanged emails. The Matrix hadn’t been launched in Japan but, however I had already seen it in theaters within the U.S. and at a preview screening.
“When the Wachowskis got here to Japan for promotion, I consider I met them thrice. Within the morning, we had a Famitsu interview in Shinjuku — that point, Geof Darrow joined us for the speak session. Within the afternoon, they had been invited to the headquarters of Konami’s CS Division. Again then, I used to be vice-president of KCE Japan, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Once I arrived on the headquarters, their assembly with Mr. Kitaue, the top of the CS Division, had simply ended.
“I joined them afterward, and we chatted for about an hour with out an interpreter (Aki wasn’t even there),” he added. “I feel John Gaeta, the visible results supervisor, was additionally current. That night, I attended the premiere screening and occasion, the place I additionally met Joel Silver. Even then, there was no point out of a suggestion.
“At the moment, I used to be already extraordinarily busy with [Metal Gear Solid 2] and possibly couldn’t have accepted the provide immediately. But when somebody had instructed me, perhaps there might’ve been a method to make it work.”
Kojima is engaged on quite a few new tasks, together with horror recreation OD for Xbox Recreation Studios. He revealed the primary trailer for it final month, sparking hypothesis that it’s related to P.T. in a roundabout way. The mysterious recreation will star Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves’ Sophia Lillis, Hunters’ Udo Kier, and Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer, with the trailer showcasing Lillis’ character in a spooky home, lighting candles earlier than assembly a malevolent determine.
The Matrix franchise was ultimately tailored right into a sequence of video games, in fact, beginning with Shiny Leisure’s Enter the Matrix in 2003, observe up The Matrix: Path of Neo in 2005, and Monolith Manufacturing’s The Matrix On-line in the identical yr. We had been additionally handled to a Matrix-themed tech demo in 2021, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Expertise, through which Epic Video games confirmed us what Unreal Engine 5 was able to.
Picture by Phillip Faraone/Getty Photographs for Kojima Productions.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and marketing consultant with 15+ years expertise working with among the world’s greatest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.