Hideo Kojima recently responded to Sony’s decision to kill all physical disc support for PS5 and PS6. According to the Metal Gear Solid creator, he now “fears” the future of video games due to consumers no longer owning their purchases.
Hideo Kojima Responds to PlayStation Ending Physical Games
Legendary video game developer Hideo Kojima was recently doing a panel in Italy when he was asked about Sony’s controversial decision to kill physical games on PS5 and PS6. The Death Stranding director revealed he had serious concerns about an all-digital future, citing a lack of trust that companies will always give him access to the games and films he’s purchased.
“Today you can still download data. But at one point games will make into streaming services like Amazon or Netflix and companies will decide if you can play a game or not. At this point I won’t have anything of my own. The data will be somewhere in a company and I will have the right to access it or not depending on how much this data tap is opened.”
Kojima then clarified that he feared that companies could one day decide he isn’t able to access his old purchases anymore. The auteur argued that players would no longer truly “own” the games or films they have paid money for.
“The fact that the initial data is not in my possession but is somewhere held by a private company means that I will always have that risk that for any reason, whether commercial or political, the company could prevent access to that data and therefore I will no longer be able to see that film, I will no longer be able to play that game. This is what’s happening next for the world of video games and I fear it will also happen for cinema.”
Hideo Kojima Warned About Digital-Only Games Back in 2021
Interestingly, two of Hideo Kojima’s tweets from 2021 recently went viral after players discovered they eerily predicted the PS5 physical disc controversy. In his social media posts, Kojima explained that he feared an all-digital gaming future would mean players no longer having any “ownership” of their games. His statements are actually very close to what he said in this recent Italy interview on July 4.
“Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative. Whenever there is a major change or accident in the world, in a country, in a government, in an idea, in a trend, access to it may suddenly be cut off.”
In the 2021 tweets, the Metal Gear Solid creator also defended players who are fighting to keep physical game media alive, saying it’s not ‘greed’ but genuine concern. “We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That’s what I’m afraid of. This is not greed.”
Yeah, all of this is scarily accurate. Then again, it shouldn’t be too surprising, as Hideo Kojima has a history of predicting major world events in his games. I mean, just look at the storylines of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Regardless, it appears that you are not alone in being wary of Sony having complete control over your games. Even Kojima fears that we could lose access to purchased titles in an all-digital future.
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