Metallic Gear Stable creator Hideo Kojima is a really busy man. Since parting methods with Metallic Gear writer Konami and establishing Kojima Productions as an unbiased studio in 2015, Kojima has launched Demise Stranding in partnership with Sony, and introduced three extra titles: Demise Stranding 2, action-espionage game Physint (additionally with Sony), and OD, a horror game printed by Xbox Game Studios.
Not a lot is thought for certain about OD, aside from it’ll make the most of Xbox’s cloud expertise to make one thing (in Kojima’s phrases) “groundbreaking” and “immersive” that “no one has done before.” It’s going to even be a collaboration between Kojima and filmmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out, Nope), in addition to different unnamed creatives. Learn on for each element we’ve been capable of glean about OD.
What’s OD’s launch date?
No thought, sorry. Kojima Productions and Xbox Game Studios haven’t but introduced a launch date for OD. One factor we will say is that, with the studio’s Demise Stranding 2 set to be launched in 2025, it’s extremely unlikely OD will come out earlier than 2026 on the earliest.
Is OD an Xbox unique?
It’s exhausting to say! Because it’s printed by Xbox Game Studios, the belief is that OD shall be launched on Xbox Collection X and Home windows PC, in addition to taking satisfaction of place on the Game Cross subscription service, as all in-house Xbox video games presently do. However it’s notable that no platforms are talked about within the trailer. Relying on how lengthy it takes to make, it’s not unimaginable that OD will come out on the subsequent era of Xbox {hardware}.
It’s additionally attainable that Microsoft will select to publish it on different, competing platforms, similar to PlayStation — that’s a alternative it’s been making lately for Xbox titles like Sea of Thieves, and, reportedly, no Microsoft game is taken into account off the desk for multiplatform publishing. That stated, the purpose of signing a Hideo Kojima game to your platform is the status and press protection he brings, versus large gross sales. So, that might be a robust argument in favor of OD remaining Xbox console-exclusive.
One other potential issue affecting OD’s platform availability is its use of Xbox’s cloud gaming expertise. This might prohibit it to Xbox platforms — or, simply as doubtless, it might make the game simpler to play wherever, on something. Will OD be Xbox’s first cloud gaming unique?
Who’s within the solid?
OD’s teaser trailer, which premiered on the 2023 Game Awards, introduced three actors who shall be in OD, and showcased their performances: Sophia Lillis (It, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), and Udo Kier (literally hundreds of Hollywood and Euro arthouse movies from the Nineteen Seventies to now). Nothing is thought about the roles the three actors shall be enjoying.
One one who is not confirmed to be showing in OD is Margaret Qualley. Qualley appeared in a leaked video demo of a Kojima horror game known as Overdose that emerged in 2022, however which can have dated from earlier. Whereas that is presumably the identical challenge as OD, it’s attainable that the video was a proof-of-concept demo, and that Qualley filmed it when she was working with Kojima on the primary Demise Stranding.
Who else is collaborating on it, apart from Jordan Peele?
When saying OD on the 2023 Game Awards, Kojima appeared beside Peele and revealed that he’d be working carefully with the horror film auteur on OD. Kojima additionally stated Peele wasn’t his solely collaborator on the challenge: He stated he had assembled a staff of storyteller “legends” to work on the game that he known as “The Avengers.”
The identities of the opposite creatives stay a thriller, although Kojima has not been above bragging about their clout. “When we reveal these names, my name will be completely forgotten,” Kojima stated on Kojima Productions’ YouTube channel. “Whenever I show this list to agents and managers, they can hardly believe it’s true. They say ‘How did you manage to gather all these people who won’t listen to anybody else? How do you do it?’”
Attainable names with a horror background embrace Kojima’s pal Guillermo del Toro, who performed a task in Demise Stranding and was as a result of collaborate with Kojima on his canceled Konami horror game, Silent Hills; and Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) who’s one in all many Hollywood varieties to have visited the Kojima Productions offices in Tokyo.
What is going to OD’s gameplay be like, and the way will it use cloud expertise?
As soon as once more, OD’s gameplay stays a thriller, though Kojima has strongly hinted that will probably be uncommon on the very least. When first saying his partnership with Xbox, Kojima stated he was making a “never-before-seen concept,” utilizing Xbox’s cloud gaming expertise to do it. Kojima repeated this message at OD’s unveiling, saying that the title “is a game, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a movie. It’s a new form of media.”
Kojima Productions says the game “explores the concept of testing your fear threshold, and what it means to OD on fear — while blurring the boundaries of gaming and film.”
The leaked Overdose footage (which is now not obtainable on-line) confirmed what gave the impression to be a reasonably normal survival horror game, with Qualley’s character exploring a spooky deserted constructing with a flashlight and getting caught by a killer. The video additionally had a picture-in-picture ingredient exhibiting a girl enjoying the game on what gave the impression to be a cell gadget.
An unverified leak from a playtest claimed the game was an “experimental experience involving players using multimedia” with “long cinematics” and “active and passive gameplay.” Gamers would allegedly “guide” the in-game characters utilizing info from sources outdoors the game, like net pages.
Is there a connection to Silent Hills?
Kojima’s first stab at horror was the canceled Silent Hills, which produced the legendary playable demo P.T. Whereas Overdose isn’t more likely to be related to Silent Hills in any method (the Silent Hill franchise is a Konami property), Kojima Productions did drop an Easter egg into OD’s trailer that seems to be a — fairly obscure — tribute to the unrealized challenge.
