In a social media message, Hideo Kojima reaffirms his commitment to game development, even though he’s still being coy about his new projects.
It can be hard to believe, but we are reaching the point where prominent Japanese developers, responsible for some of your favourite childhood games, are going to be calling it quits sooner or later.
Shigeru Miyamoto, who is 73 years old, has long since stepped away from making games, to focus on Nintendo’s Hollywood aspirations. Meanwhile, Takashi Tezuka, a long serving Nintendo producer, recently stepped down from the company’s board of directors, while company veteran Kensuke Tanabe has left Nintendo altogether.
One day, renowned auteur Hideo Kojima will stop making games too, but that day is not any time soon, even as he turns 63 years old.
Kojima has marked the occasion in an X post via his personal account, where he talks about how he continues to come up with ideas he wants to pursue, but he’s running out of time to do all of them.
‘As I get older, the things I ‘have to do’ and the things I ‘want to do’ continue to increase. At the same time, the time I ‘have to do them’ continues to decrease,’ writes Kojima.
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‘I constantly need to reassess how I use my time and how I live my life. That said, once you’ve taken something on, you can’t simply put it down and walk away.’
Kojima assures fans that he ‘would like to remain focused on creating games’, even as he receives ‘various opportunities and offers’ – which is likely a reference to other multimedia projects, such as the Death Stranding movie.
He also taken a moment to acknowledge that 2026 marks both his 40th anniversary of making games (his first credited work is on platformer Penguin Adventure in 1986) and the 10th anniversary of Kojima Productions (which was technically founded in December 2015).
I turned 63. As I get older, the things I “have to do” and the things I “want to do” continue to increase. At the same time, the time I “have to do them” continues to decrease. I constantly need to reassess how I use my time and how I live my life. That said, once you’ve taken… pic.twitter.com/Qz37xsDdjd
At 63, Kojima isn’t actually that old, but while fans of his work will be pleased to know he has no intention of retiring, it is a reality they’ll need to face eventually. Especially as nowadays games can easily take five to six years to make.
For what it’s worth, the retirement age for men, here in the UK, is 67 but in Japan it’s currently 65. Since Kojima is in charge of his own company, though, he’ll probably be inspired to say on far longer than average.
As it stands, Kojima has only announced two projects he’s involved with at the moment. The first is OD, a new horror game that is very reminiscent of the P.T. teaser Kojima made to hype up his long since cancelled Silent Hills game.
Very little is known about OD, aside from some of its celebrity actors, it being co-written by horror movie director Jordan Peele, and that it is making use of Xbox’s cloud technology.
