Kojima-isms: Quirky Ways of Looking at Game Consoles

Hideo Kojima, the renowned video game designer (Metal Gear franchise) is also famous for his trademark quirky and irreverent sense of humor. His interviews are known to be a goldmine for Kojima-isms – quotable quotes straight from the master’s lips.

Here are a few Kojima-isms on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo’s Wii and then some. But first a warning to all Wii fanboys. You may find some of his statements upsetting. Just remember he said these, we didn’t. Please, don’t shoot the messenger.

“The PS3, it’s a real fancy dinner that you only have maybe on your anniversary, so maybe once or twice a year. 360, it’s a kind of a nice dinner, but you can have it maybe once or twice a month. For Revolution, I can only comment just on the fact that you can play all the games on the past, but listening to that, I think it’s a good dinner that you have at home every day.”

More of Kojima-isms after the jump!

Hideo Kojima, the renowned video game designer (Metal Gear franchise) is also famous for his trademark quirky and irreverent sense of humor. His interviews are known to be a goldmine for Kojima-isms – quotable quotes straight from the master’s lips.

Here are a few Kojima-isms on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo’s Wii and then some. But first a warning to all Wii fanboys. You may find some of his statements upsetting. Just remember he said these, we didn’t. Please, don’t shoot the messenger.

“The PS3, it’s a real fancy dinner that you only have maybe on your anniversary, so maybe once or twice a year. 360, it’s a kind of a nice dinner, but you can have it maybe once or twice a month. For Revolution, I can only comment just on the fact that you can play all the games on the past, but listening to that, I think it’s a good dinner that you have at home every day.”

“What I want to say is that all three platforms are dinner. They have salad, the appetizer, the soup, the main course as well, the dessert. But some machines have, say, two desserts, or another appetizer. I want to say that every new platform is the same, though: dinner. The reason why I describe all of this as dinner is because the users now have the choice to pick the kind of dinner they’d like to have. I’ll have this anniversary, we’re gonna have a special dinner and go out; or it’s a nice day, I’d like to have a great dinner, but not too fancy; or I’d like to really spend some time with my family, so why not have a nice dinner at home?”

“To refresh your memory, last year I said the PlayStation 3 was a big meal that you have once a year, the 360 was a special meal that you have on weekends, and the Revolution – as it was called at the time – was your everyday meal. Last year, it was the same family changing meals according to the situation; that was my line on it.”

“Now, the PlayStation 3 is like a movie theater for people who want to see this movie on the big screen with THX and 5.1 audio, even if they have to pay a high price. The Xbox 360 is DVD. Basically, you don’t know what movie you want to see, so you go to the store and see if you can pick up a good one. The Wii is like a TV for when you’re home and you don’t know what you want to watch but you [want to] have that variety.“

“So I think the three platforms are really distinctive and they mostly don’t overlap each other — people who love movies watch TV all the time. We have to be very quick [with what we’re doing in terms of games]. We can’t wait long to turn on TV, and also, the programs have to be in all varieties so everyone is satisifed, as opposed to the movie theaters, where everything has to be high spec. People want high emotions. You want to be touched watching it on the big screen. For DVD, or the 360, you need to have a lot of variety so when people stop by they’ll pick up your product. Maybe in the future, you’ll see three DVDs for $10.“

“Everyone asks, “What’s the next level with this next-gen platform?” I would like to go after the “real,” meaning if I were to create a jungle on the next-gen platform, I would not create a bigger fake jungle, I would even perhaps make it smaller. But I would have the trees with life inside…put life in them, sort of, life programming, so if you water the tree it will grow, if you don’t water the tree it might die. Then I would ask the users, why not play hide and seek in that real jungle?“

“Western video game designers…because they are so artistic, they forget what games should feel like…games need to feel right and they need to play well. It’s like serving food in a restaurant. You need to be sensitive to the customer. You need to be nice and providing service. Maybe that was lacking in the western games…”

“Online games are popular and they will remain popular, but the problem with online games is that you do not know who you are playing against. The anonymity, when you do not know the other people you are playing with or against, you can kick the hell out of them. You will never be nice. You will never spare their lives.”

Via NeoGAF