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Hideo Kojima Dislikes Over-Hyping Games ... Irony, much?

Gothic Girl | September 18, 2008 | News | Playstation 3

The hype for Metal Gear Solid 4 was huge. Japan was flooded with odd little TV commercials proclaiming that MGS4 is more important than marriage, giant MGS4 posters splashed across cities and arcade machines promoting the game. It was one of the biggest game releases of this-generation.

So it seemed odd when Hideo Kojima recently revealed how much he dislikes it when "massive advertising campaigns are executed for games" which results in " sell-off tactics happening without hesitation".

It's curious that on the job announcement page for the Kojima Productions site, Hideo Kojima states:

quote Kojima
The creativity of video games is now on the verge of crisis. Massive advertising campaigns are executed for games before their entertainment values are put into consideration all too often, resulting in sell-off tactics happening without hesitation.

The irony is that Konami is guilty of the hype Kojima seems so critical of.

News Story attached to:

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots [PS3]

18 comments | go to source (kotaku.com) | Add to favorites!

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Comments

4 thumbs!
iLLmatic | September 19, 2008

No, no *bleep*ing irony at all. Like I said in the GT forums, MGS4 is one of the few games that had huge hype, lived up to it, and surpassed it, point blank period. Kojima is allowed to say whatever he wants when he is talking about creativity in games, or lack thereof.
- 4 thumbs!
  The Jocker | September 19, 2008
  
  Metal Gear Solid 4 was overrated.
  - 0 thumbs!
    Final Blade | September 19, 2008
    
    quote
    Halo 3 was overrated.
    _{There I fixed your quote.
    
    Kojima is 100% right though, while MGS4 was really hyped up, it lived to the hype as iLL stated.}
  - 1 thumbs!
    The Jocker | September 19, 2008
    
    Where did I say Halo 3 wasn't overrated?
    
    Halo 3, MGS4 and Brawl are all overrated in my book.
    - 2 thumbs!
      Raziel_326 | September 19, 2008
      
      I doubt you've played any of them.
    - 0 thumbs!
      The Jocker | September 19, 2008
      
      I've owned all 3.
      
      Still own MGS4 and Brawl, while I sold Halo on eBay a month or so ago.
    - 0 thumbs!
      Seproth | September 20, 2008
      
      Hmmm....Spelling is overrated?
0 thumbs!
Silver Mirror | September 19, 2008

He talking more about games which are hyped and don't live up to it right? Like Wii Music for instance. We all know where that's going.
- 0 thumbs!
  Seproth | September 19, 2008
  
  Don't there need to be a few people excited for it to be "hyped"?
- 0 thumbs!
  ali3n | September 19, 2008
  
  How exactly is that getting hyped? They're advertising it but it's in no way getting hyped.
0 thumbs!
Exevier | September 19, 2008

The article sounds a bit misleading. Kojima's talking about the kind of games where the developers forgo the important parts of making a great game and only really focus on advertisement, thus resulting in an over-hyped half-assed game. MGS4 was incredibly hyped, but clearly nothing was sacrificed in the development stage to achieve this.
1 thumbs!
ali3n | September 19, 2008

I would say that rather than irony it's hypocrisy.
- 0 thumbs!
  Red 9 | September 19, 2008
  
  Kojima didn't hype the game, the fans did. MGS4's ad campaign was not as prevalent as most games. In fact, I've seen some terrible games with a larger ad campaign than MGS4.
  - 0 thumbs!
    BlackLabel | September 20, 2008
    
    Mercenaries 2 has had a much larger advertising campaign in the UK alone than MGS4 had worldwide.
  - 1 thumbs!
    ali3n | September 20, 2008
    
    Kojima did hype the game, there were quite a few articles before the game came out about how 'the serious games' are at an end if MGS4 fails according to him etc, I can't be bothered to dig them all out for you however Kojima did hype the game quite a lot.
    
    The hype for the games or anything else generally tend to come from the fans therefore going 'LOL FANS DID IT' is slightly stupid there are a couple of exceptions, TDK for one, but MGS4 was not one of those.
    - 1 thumbs!
      Red 9 | September 20, 2008
      
      Kojima's interviews can't be considered hype. He was simply voicing his opinions, which any dev can do regardless of what they're working on.
      
      Besides, it was MGS; how could it NOT be hyped?
    - 1 thumbs!
      ali3n | September 20, 2008
      
      Then by your logic very few games are actually hyped. How could it not be hyped? I don't know neither do I really care.
1 thumbs!
dwg14390 | September 20, 2008

Yeah Kojima never really hyped his game much if at all. I heard about it through a whole bunch of MGS fans screaming ZOMFG MGS4 IS COMING!!!!11!!!11!1!!1!ONE! BUY IT NAO!!

Basically the same happened with brawl. It had like, 3-4 commercials, but It was the nintendo fanboys (and me) that did most of the hyping.

And there is always a thing as to much hype. look how Halo and Brawl turned out

Not sure about MGS4 since it's the only one I never played.

It's good that he dislikes overhyping games.

Leave to us to hype about the games and all you have to do is make it good.....and commercials, don't forget about those.