You can always count on Hideo Kojima to leave you confused, intrigued, and inspired all at the same time. The Kojima Productions founder is working with Xbox Game Studios on OD, a currently genre-less experience, as Hideo Kojima isn’t elaborating too much on the project’s nature. However, patents are beginning to appear as Kojima Productions dives deeper into production, and they sound just as weird as you are expecting them to be.
One of the best PS5 exclusives around, Death Stranding opened PS5 owners up to the concept of the ‘Social Strand System’. The game was billed as the first Strand game before release, and now OD looks to implement a similary fresh concept too. According to patent tracking account ‘tmark365’, Kojima Productions is filing patents for the following concepts:
- Social Scream System
- Social Stealth
Alongside these patents is a filing for the actual OD logo itself, but what exactly is Kojima Productions up to? Now, it isn’t the first time that Hideo Kojima has dabbled with coining new ways to view genres, as the Metal Gear Solid franchise is famously known for deploying ‘Tactical Espionage Action’ for most of its entries. However, Metal Gear Solid 5 brandishes the phrase ‘Tactical Espionage Operations’ instead.
The Social Strand System in Death Stranding allowed players to communicate in a form of multiplayer, but it didn’t actually put players together in the same world or even at the same time. Players could make structures, leave behind signs, gestures, and tips as a means of collaborating with other players. Should you do something especially helpful, like making a bridge to a hard-to-reach place for example, then you could boot up to hundreds of likes from other players.
With Kojima Productions opting to keep the ‘Social’ aspect going forward into OD, we wonder whether another iteration of Death Stranding-like multiplayer functionality will appear. Hideo Kojima has never been one to do anything conventional, and one look at the game’s trailer continues to affirm that.
According to a new statement from Kojima Productions and Xbox Game Studios, 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.” Starring Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schaffer, and Udo Kier, the project is set to feature a range of collaborations from prominent filmmakers. One of which is Get Out and Nope director Jordan Peele.
The project is set to be an Xbox exclusive, and could use cloud gaming in an innovative way. This stems from Kojima’s appearance at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase in 2022.
Kojima says in the presentation that “it’s a completely new game, one that no one has ever experienced or seen before. I’ve waited very long for the day I could finally start to create it. With Microsoft’s cutting edge cloud technology and the change in the industry’s trend, it has now become possible to challenge myself to make this never-before-seen concept.”
We’re excited to see what Kojima is crafting, as OD becomes of many new Xbox games to keep on your radar.