In an interview with associate editor Mitch Dyer from IGN, Konami’s Hideo Kojima said video games need to “go beyond what the original media was supposed to be” if they are to be considered as cultural as other media such as novels or movies.

This thought process parallels a round-table interview conducted in February of 2013 where Kojima said, “Video games as a medium haven’t matured very much at all in the last 25 years. It’s always about killing aliens and zombies….I think games have a long way to go before they can mature.”

“We have to go the limit” Kojima told IGN in regards to both the industry and upcoming Metal Gear Solid games which will contain darker, and more taboo themes than previous titles. “We look around; we don’t see too many games like this. That is unfortunate.”

“We have a message we want to convey” Kojima said of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, which contains unsettling imagery and situations. Kojima fears criticism for these scenes, but he doesn’t want to “step back from” them.

“I am approaching this project as a creator and prioritizing creativity over sales” Kojima said last year. That project will release March 18^th in the United States where we’ll find out if Kojima’s fears of poor sales and harsh criticism will prove to be true or not.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is rated mature for blood and gore, intense violence, sexual violence, and strong language

My Opinion

The video game industry has been in a frightened, cynical downward spiral this last generation where publishers think “maturity” equates to more blood and bigger weapons instead of storylines that actually get the player to think. Games that take risks devolve into shooters (just look at the difference between Dead Space and Dead Space 3 or Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6) or wallow away in more-of-the-same.

Kojima’s view of the big-budget side of the industry is absolutely correct. There’s nothing respectable about Call of Duty: Ghosts, despite its mature rating and its high levels of blood and violence. There’s nothing mature about boiling harsh violence into “fun” or “enjoyable.”

Hideo Kojima is taking a risk with Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, and that’s respectable and necessary if video games are to be called “art.” I wish him the best.