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Fans briefly panicked after Hideo Kojima’s account shared “The life and death of Hideo Kojima” piece, but he’s fine – he’s just thinking about death and the things he still wants to make
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Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima is passing ideas onto his staff for after he dies, but he doesn’t want them to copy him, because they “will go out of business”: “I am not going to pass the baton to anyone”
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Hideo Kojima says “I always think of other, more weird stuff to make” but he can’t just do that when it also has to sell or “my studio will go bankrupt”
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As Hideo Kojima celebrates Death Stranding 2’s release, he says “there were moments when I truly felt like we might never finish this game”
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Death Stranding 2 was written before the pandemic, but illness and isolation had a heavy impact on Hideo Kojima and pushed him toward games that “don’t already exist in the world”
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Death Stranding 2 isn’t weird enough: Hideo Kojima has an idea for a game where your character forgets everything if you stop playing
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Death Stranding 2
Hideo Kojima’s fabled USB stick full of ideas contingency plan has been put aside, as it was actually put in place during a 2020 health scare long before Death Stranding 2’s release
Scott McCrae
4 July 2025
The idea behind it was to give Kojima Productions something to build from in the immediate aftermath
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(Image credit: Kojima Productions)
Hideo Kojima has addressed comments made ahead of Death Stranding 2’s release about him leaving a USB stick full of ideas to his staff to be used when he dies, clarifying it was actually something that was put into place when he had a health scare during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ahead of Death Stranding 2’s release, Hideo Kojima was pretty introspective in interviews. He did a big interview called “The life and death of Hideo Kojima,” where he admitted he fears death regularly. However, for as much as people paint him as self-obsessed due to the overabundance of credits for himself in the likes of Metal Gear Solid 5, he’s spoken about the fear of Kojima Productions failing and his staff being out of work.
He also spoke about a USB stick full of ideas that he gave to his assistant, “kind of like a will,” for the studio to use if he passes away (although he’s also said that he doesn’t want them to copy him, because they “will go out of business”).
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Fans briefly panicked after Hideo Kojima’s account shared “The life and death of Hideo Kojima” piece, but he’s fine – he’s just thinking about death and the things he still wants to make
Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima is passing ideas onto his staff for after he dies, but he doesn’t want them to copy him, because they “will go out of business”: “I am not going to pass the baton to anyone”
Hideo Kojima says “I always think of other, more weird stuff to make” but he can’t just do that when it also has to sell or “my studio will go bankrupt”
However, Kojima has now elaborated on this USB stick at a French Death Stranding 2 panel (via Genki), where he explains that it was actually a miscommunication.
Kojima admits the USB stick plan actually came about when he got “seriously ill” during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was worried about his studio and making sure the staff would continue to get paid if he was unable to make games. He adds that he put all the ideas he saved up onto a USB stick, saying: “If I get sick and can’t make games, please use this.”
This wasn’t supposed to be a situation where Kojima wanted Kojima Productions to use his ideas forever, rather to get them through the aftermath if the worst came to pass. Now that he’s recovered, however, the plan has been put aside.
Kojima previously mentioned that this same health scare was responsible for him creating Physint, as fans kept asking for a new Metal Gear game.
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He’s typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.
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Fans briefly panicked after Hideo Kojima’s account shared “The life and death of Hideo Kojima” piece, but he’s fine – he’s just thinking about death and the things he still wants to make
Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima is passing ideas onto his staff for after he dies, but he doesn’t want them to copy him, because they “will go out of business”: “I am not going to pass the baton to anyone”
Hideo Kojima says “I always think of other, more weird stuff to make” but he can’t just do that when it also has to sell or “my studio will go bankrupt”
As Hideo Kojima celebrates Death Stranding 2’s release, he says “there were moments when I truly felt like we might never finish this game”
Death Stranding 2 was written before the pandemic, but illness and isolation had a heavy impact on Hideo Kojima and pushed him toward games that “don’t already exist in the world”
Death Stranding 2 isn’t weird enough: Hideo Kojima has an idea for a game where your character forgets everything if you stop playing
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