If you’re still scratching your head over what OD actually is, Hideo Kojima knows exactly how you feel and he’s not about to clear things up in a straightforward way. Instead, the legendary game creator is encouraging fans to obsessively rewatch the teaser trailer, promising that there’s a “big hint” buried inside it for those willing to put in the time.
Kojima recently spoke with Nikkei Xtrend in an interview translated by GamesRadar+, where he leaned into the mystery surrounding his upcoming horror project. While he stopped well short of spelling out what OD really is, he did suggest that our assumptions might be too simple.
“I think when you first see OD it looks like horror,” he says. “But the system it uses isn’t ordinary. Everything is made in a game engine, and a game is a game, but it’s still a system like no other. That’s why we built a completely new medium together with Microsoft.”
Kojima makes it clear that even though OD runs on familiar tech, it isn’t meant to be consumed like a traditional video game. Exactly how it breaks that mold remains under wraps, largely because Kojima says he’s on a very short leash.
“I can’t say anything else or Mr Phil will be mad at me,” he explains, referring to Phil Spencer. “But actually, if you watch the teaser trailer many times there’s a hint. I really can’t say what it is, but if you watch it 100 times… At the end of the trailer it reads ‘for all players and screamers’. That’s also a big hint.”
Naturally, that only adds fuel to the speculation fire. Whether the clue points to some kind of interactive horror experience, audience participation, or something even stranger is anyone’s guess right now.
Kojima’s flair for dramatic hype is nothing new. Whatever OD turns out to be, it’s clearly not designed to play by the usual rules. I guess I just need to watch that trailer about 99 more times and see if anything jumps out at me.
