Death Stranding's Hideo Kojima Discusses the Difficulties of Starting His Own Company

Hideo Kojima is known for a number of big-name games, whether it be next month's Death Stranding, the underrated Zone of the Enders, or the series he is known for the most, Metal Gear Solid. Ever since he left Konami and opened Kojima Productions, most of us assumed that he had an easy time gathering people to make his upcoming project but it turns out he had a harder time than most of us thought.

Speaking with Famitsu (translated by Kotaku), Kojima revealed that he might have had a big name and that did help in the long run but it came with a number of roadblocks. For one thing, Kojima had a hard time getting a loan from a bank in Japan since, despite his reputation, the renowned game developer had yet to make anything successful on his own.

Thankfully, another bank did know who he was and Kojima was able to get a loan and start development on the game, as well as find buildings to work on. However, Kojima Productions doesn't have the same name value as something like Toei Animation, Studio Ghibli, or even Konami.

Here's what Kojima had to say about his difficult journey:

"I was a 53-year-old middle-aged guy, I didn't have any money or much of anything else, and it was just me saying I was going to make this open-world game."

"Even when I went to the bank, I couldn't borrow money. They said, ‘We know you're renowned, but you don't have any actual results.' This is the kind of country Japan is. But then, there was a banker at the biggest bank [in Japan] who was a huge fan of mine, and I got the financing."

Despite everything Konami put Kojima through, the man is grateful for his time there. He does admit that the company made him the creator he is today, working on some of his biggest projects like the aforementioned Metal Gear Solid series.

Death Stranding comes out on PS4 next month on November 8.

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