An excellent article from our friends at Time Extension revealed recently how close Hideo Kojima potentially came to creating a game based on seminal action movie The Matrix.
According to Christopher Bergstresser, a former vice president of licensing at Konami Digital Entertainment, the Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima and wanted him to make a title inspired by the film.
As sequel Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was in development at the time, the request was denied. We’d recommend you read the Time Extension article for the full story.
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Now writing on X (or Twitter), Kojima himself has shared a slightly different sequence of events, saying “no one ever told me such a conversation had taken place”.
He writes:
“The Matrix hadn’t been released in Japan yet, but I had already seen it in theatres in the US and at a preview screening. When the Wachowskis came to Japan for promotion, I believe I met them three times. In the morning, we had a Famitsu interview in Shinjuku – that time, Geof Darrow joined us for the talk session. In the afternoon, they were invited to the headquarters of Konami’s CS Division. Back then, I was Vice President of KCE JAPAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary. When I arrived at the headquarters, their meeting with [Kasumi] Kitaue, the head of the CS Division, had just ended.”
Kojima says he did attend a screening and party, but there was no mention of an offer to create a Matrix game.
“At that time, I was already extremely busy with MGS2 and probably couldn’t have accepted the offer right away,” he continues.
“But if someone had told me, maybe there could’ve been a way to make it work.”
So, there we have it, Kojima had no idea the Wachowskis wanted him to make a game based on The Matrix, and while it couldn’t have happened right away, there may have been potential for it in the future.
Of course, Shiny Entertainment would eventually get that privilege with 2003’s infamous Enter the Matrix – a title which was critically panned but still holds fond memories for many who owned a PS2 at the time.
Would you have liked to see Kojima’s take on The Matrix? Or are you happy the auteur was able to focus on Metal Gear Solid instead? Let us know below.