Kojima Leaves Posthumous Creative Blueprint in USB Will

Shortly after sharing several abandoned video game concepts—including a "Forgetting Game" where the protagonist loses crucial memories and skills if you take extended breaks—Kojima has now disclosed that he left his team a USB drive filled with game ideas to carry out after his passing.

According to VGC, Kojima shared this somber detail with Edge magazine, reflecting on how his outlook shifted during the pandemic.

“Reaching 60 wasn’t as pivotal as what I went through during the pandemic,” he remarked. “I became seriously ill and underwent eye surgery. Before that, I never felt my age—I believed I could keep creating indefinitely.

“But when I fell sick, I couldn’t produce anything. I also witnessed many people around me pass away. I faced mortality head-on. Though I recovered, I started wondering, ‘How many years do I actually have left to develop a game or film? Maybe just ten?’”

This reassessment motivated Kojima to launch multiple new projects and create the USB drive “as a sort of will,” intended to safeguard the future of Kojima Productions.

“I handed a USB stick containing all my ideas to my assistant, almost like a will,” he said. “Maybe they could keep creating after I’m gone at Kojima Productions… It’s a concern for me—what becomes of the studio when I’m no longer here? I don’t want them to just maintain our current IP.”

Recently, IGN covered Kojima’s musings on integrating real-time passage into video games. He not only discussed past time-based mechanics but also unveiled unused concepts, including one cut from the upcoming Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.

“I considered having characters’ hair grow in games,” Kojima shared on his Japanese radio show KOJI10. “Initially, I planned for Sam’s beard to grow over time in Death Stranding 2, requiring players to shave it. Otherwise, he’d look disheveled. But since Norman Reedus is such a prominent star, I didn’t want to make him appear uncool!” Still, the director hinted he might implement this feature in a future title.

Kojima also introduced three game ideas built around real-life time progression. The first is a life simulation: “You begin as a newborn, grow into a child, and gradually become an adult. Throughout the game, you battle various foes. Similar to The End in MGS3, if you keep playing, your character ages into their 70s or 80s. At that stage, you’d be physically weaker with poorer eyesight. As a teen, you’d run faster, but by 60, you’d slow down,” Kojima explained. He noted that while youth brings better physical stats, age brings wisdom and experience, influencing your combat approach. “But who would buy it?” he joked, though his podcast co-hosts expressed excitement for such a uniquely Kojima experience.

Another concept involves crafting items like wine or cheese that need time to mature. This would encourage long-term, gradual play, functioning almost like an idle or background game.

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Finally, Kojima pitched a “forgetting game” that demands rapid completion. In this setup, the protagonist starts losing vital knowledge and skills if you pause gameplay for too long. For instance, skipping daily sessions could cause the character to forget “how to fire a weapon or what their mission is.” This memory loss accumulates until the character becomes immobile. “Players would need to take a week off from work or school to finish it,” Kojima quipped.

It’s an incredibly busy period for Kojima and his studio, Kojima Productions (now we understand why!). Besides Death Stranding 2, he’s collaborating with A24 on a live-action Death Stranding film—the studio behind Oscar-winning hits like Everything Everywhere All At Once. He’s also developing OD for Xbox Game Studios and the game-movie hybrid Physint for Sony.

No release dates have been announced for OD or Physint. In fact, Kojima mentioned in January that the video game voice actors’ strike impacted both projects, so we might not hear updates for a while.