Before Hideo Kojima went off to work on Death Stranding, he was working on a project for Konami called Silent Hills. The project was eventually canceled, and Kojima says that he might never be working on a horror game ever again.
"I Get Scared Very Easily"
Funnily enough, Kojima's reason for not wanting to return to the horror franchise was because he gets spooked very easily. In an interview during RTX Sydney 2017, Kojima says, "I get scared very easily... Actually, this is true of Alfred Hitchcock as well as Steven Spielberg. Because they scare easily, because I scare easily, it's actually easy for us to make something that is scary, because we understand what is scary."
Kojima also reveals that constantly thinking up terrifying situations for players gives him nightmares when he sleeps, so that's why he's chosen to steer clear of horror games. Interestingly, Kojima also divulges on his philosophy when it comes to making horror games, and he says that the most effective way of scaring someone is to show them something a bit out of the ordinary. Even if the thing is subtle, the trick "confuses" players and they'll be unsettled whenever they see it.
Death Stranding Is Not Horror
Just recently, Kojima had confirmed that his next game, Death Stranding is not a horror game. A lot of people were expecting it to be scary since the last game that Kojima worked on was the canceled Silent Hills game, but he says that this time around, he just "wants to make something very unique" and something with a more artistic slant.
Death Stranding will star "The Walking Dead's" Norman Reedus as the main playable character and "Hannibal's" Mads Mikkelsen as the primary antagonist. Though Death Stranding is said not to be a horror game, the two main actors are very prolific when it comes to the genre. Even "Hellboy" director Guillermo del Toro is playing a character in the game.
As of now, no release date has been confirmed for Death Stranding, but Kojima already has one in mind - he's just not telling. Hopefully, the game releases sometime around 2018.
