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With millions of fans around the world, the Metal Gear franchise
has become one of the most popular series in the history of video games.
Metal Gear for me, was the genre that introduced stealth to me.
But how did Metal Gear begin?
How did Hideo Kojima and his colleagues bring Solid Snake into 3D?
And what is the future for this beloved franchise?
Keep your codec tuned to this frequency, and you'll find out.
The Metal Gear Saga started in Japan in 1987,
when a young game developer named Hideo Kojima decided to build
the world's first stealth action adventure.
The original Metal Gear was a hit, and spawned a sequel called
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake that was released in Japan in 1990.
The series was dormant until the mid '90s, when Kojima and his team
began work on a new Metal Gear game for the original Sony PlayStation.
Metal Gear Solid was released in 1998,
and the game was a smash hit around the world.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was planned as a follow-up
for the Sony PlayStation 2 and was released in 2001 .
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, also for the PlayStation 2,
was released in 2004.
And now, twenty years since he first appeared, Snake is back
in a brand new global adventure for Sony's PLAYSTATION 3,
called Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Metal Gear...
The name goes hand-in-hand with the cutting-edge,
state-of-the-art gameplay experience.
The mention of the very words conjures up thoughts and images
of stealth, cunning, rich characters, and tactical espionage action
in the minds of any gamer.
One of the things that strikes me is just the fusion
of these memorable characters,
with really deeply compelling gameplay.
I think Mr. Kojima's Metal Gear games have been groundbreaking.
MGS pushes the limits of game development with every new addition to the series.
The series is so renowned for pushing the envelope
of 3D console-based gaming,
that it's sometimes easy to forget its humble beginnings
as a 2D stealth action game for the MSX2 home computer system.
The first Metal Gear was a hide-and-seek game set in a 2D world.
Inspired by his love for Hollywood action movies,
Hideo Kojima gave birth to one of the most memorable
franchises in video games.
Released by Konami in 1987, Metal Gear follows
the story of an American Special Forces soldier code-named Snake
as he infiltrates the military stronghold Outer Heaven.
Initially armed only with his wits,
Snake seeks to find and destroy Metal Gear TX-55,
a nuclear-armed walking tank designed to be the link
between infantry and heavy artillery.
Despite becoming one of the most recognized
video game characters ever, players still know little about who Snake is.
But then again, that was all part of Kojima's plan.
When I created the main character, I knew he is essentially the player.
You might be surprised to hear this...
But I wanted the character to be vague.
That way, players will project their own personalities onto the character,
and form a stronger connection with Snake.
As Snake makes his way deeper and deeper into Outer Heaven,
getting ever closer to Metal Gear,
he's aided by his commanding officer, Big Boss, via Codec.
Snake also utilizes an assortment of different weapons
and helpful items unique to games at the time,
including a silenced pistol, conservable rations,
and even a player-guided rocket launcher.
Despite the technical limitations of the hardware,
Metal Gear features the same outside-the-box innovation,
challenging but rewarding gameplay, plot twists, boss battles,
and puzzle solving that can be found in the most recent entries in the series.
However, perhaps the most memorable aspect of the original game is stealth.
Before Metal Gear came along,
I always wanted to run head-first into combat like Rambo.
Most games at that time focused on shooting things
or finding enemies to attack and conquer.
Metal Gear did the opposite, having players avoid the enemy in order to complete the mission.
I thought this opened up a whole new world of gameplay.
At the climax of the original game, Snake destroys Metal Gear
only to find that his commanding officer, Big Boss,
is himself the secret leader of the sinister Outer Heaven.
The now hostile relationship between these two characters will become a staple
of the Metal Gear series, as will the subtle social commentary on
the role of the military that is left open to interpretation by the player.
Metal Gear fared well in Japan, but in North America the game was a huge success.
This drove Konami to produce a sequel for release exclusively in the west
known as Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge.
However, this game was made without the consent of Hideo Kojima.
Initially, Kojima-san did not plan on making a sequel to Metal Gear,
but fan support and the creation of Snake's Revenge prompted him to revisit the series.
The result was 1990's Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, released exclusively in Japan.
Ignoring the events of Snake's Revenge, Metal Gear 2 follows
the continuing adventures of Snake, as he's sent to infiltrate Zanzibarland.
Along the way, Snake discovers that his old adversary, Big Boss, is the man
behind this hostile nation, and that he has built another, more advanced Metal Gear.
This time around, Kojima delved further into the characters,
explored complex political and military themes,
and improved the enemy A.I., making it more challenging to remain unseen.
This was also the first game of the series to use cinematics
to deliver crucial plot points...
An imperative element for future Metal Gear games.
Metal Gear 2 also introduced new characters,
including Colonel Roy Campbell, Snake's new commanding officer.
Frank Jaeger, otherwise known as Gray Fox,
who was seen briefly in the first game,
is discovered to be a defector and a traitor
who Snake must battle in a lethal fistfight.
Upon the destruction of the new Metal Gear,
Snake is confronted again by Big Boss,
and defeats him with a makeshift flamethrower,
by combining an aerosol can and lighter.
Despite commercial and critical success in Japan,
Metal Gear 2 would never see the light of day in America,
until the release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence,
16 years later in 2006.
For all intents and purposes, Solid Snake and the Metal Gear series
were finished as the '80s came to a close.
But that was all about to change...
In 1994, Sony released the original PlayStation console,
and Hideo Kojima saw the powerful system as the perfect vehicle
to reinvigorate his stealth action franchise.
The Sony PlayStation was already a hit in Japan,
but it became a true global phenomenon when it made its debut
at the very first E3 trade show in Los Angeles, in 1995.
It was clear to Hideo Kojima and his team that the impressive hardware
of the new console would be powerful enough
to realize Metal Gear in a whole new way.
Kojima and his team began researching, scouting locations,
and even military training in order to make the game feel as realistic as possible.
Motion capture techniques were used, dialogue was recorded,
and a musical score was composed.
The team spared no expense and endeavored to make
the new Metal Gear game the most elaborate video game ever created.
During the development of Metal Gear Solid,
I was fortunate to learn about a new, more robust platform -- Sony's PlayStation.
We knew this was our big chance, so we put all of our
collective energy and experience into development.
The result was Metal Gear Solid.
After years in development, Metal Gear Solid was released in 1998
to rave reviews and eventually went on to sell over six million copies,
and earn countless Game of the Year awards.
The game was primarily story-driven,
and stayed true to its clandestine predecessors.
The advancements of the PlayStation enabled the player
to perform more stealthy maneuvers than ever before.
This new 3D technology, apart from making the game look more realistic,
opened up a whole new world of storytelling for Kojima.
In 2D, for example, if I want to change the angle of a camera,
I have to draw the whole object over again from scratch.
But in 3D, once you create the model, you can manipulate it,
so you are able to see it from any angle. It makes things a lot easier.
Take a sniper rifle, for example...
You place an enemy 50 yards ahead and look into the scope to see what happens.
In 3D, the enemy is actually at a 50-yard distance.
So, by looking into the scope, zooming and aiming at the target, realism is achieved.
One of the best things about movies is the ability to change camera angles.
And just like shooting a movie scene, changing a player's point of view
during gameplay, in real-time, makes it more realistic.
3D enabled us to offer an even greater representative of the hide-and-seek gameplay of Metal Gear.
Although released in 1998, Metal Gear Solid is set in the year 2005,
and picks up six years after the events in Metal Gear 2.
It follows the exploits of Solid Snake as he infiltrates
a nuclear weapons disposal facility in Alaska called Shadow Moses.
It was one of the first titles to use 3D polygons in a video game.
Polygons were used, mostly, in racing or flight simulation games.
It was rare to see polygon-based characters in action games,
and it was challenging for us to use 3D polygons to create these characters.
I remember it being very difficult.
During Solid Snake's mission, he encounters some of
the most important and memorable characters in the Metal Gear story.
These included the fiery Meryl Silverburgh, the resourceful Otacon,
and Gray Fox's incarnation as the Cyborg Ninja.
With MGS1, I personally liked the Cyborg Ninja.
Originally, he was not in the script...
But I approached Mr. Kojima to see if we could incorporate this character into the game.
We're also introduced to Shalashaska,
otherwise known as Revolver Ocelot,
and Solid Snake's genetically crafted twin brother, Liquid Snake,
whose fates would soon be forever intertwined.
Keeping with the tradition of terrific boss fights
that were introduced in the 8-bit Metal Gear games,
Metal Gear Solid delivers vicious combat scenes that pit Solid Snake
against unforgettable villains like
νulcan Raven,
Sniper Wolf,
and Psycho Mantis.
When you actually fight him,
it pretends like it's changing the mode on your Tν.
Like it's changing from νideo 1 to νideo 2,
and it just made you think about yourself playing the game,
like outside of the game.
Wait a minute... Then I realized, that's not the brand of television I have.
I was like, "What's going on here?"
By the time that Liquid Snake had been defeated
and the credits rolled on Metal Gear Solid,
it was clear that Hideo Kojima and his team had crafted a true masterpiece
in just the early days of 3D action gaming.
And now the world was hungry for more of Solid Snake's adventures
just as speculation grew on a new PlayStation being created...
The gaming world wondered what kinds of surprises
Kojima's team had planned...
In the late '90s, Metal Gear Solid
was an enormous success on the PlayStation.
The game had proven that Kojima's team was more than up to the task
of moving their tactical espionage action series
into three-dimensional gameplay.
But by the year 2000, a new PlayStation console was almost upon us...
The PlayStation 2 launched in Japan on March 4, 2000,
while the North American launch of the console
followed in November of the same year.
The console had a monstrously successful launch amid complaints
of a dearth of compelling games to play.
The cries of "not enough good games" died a year later however,
as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released in North America and Japan
in November of 2001 and in Europe a few months later.
My personal favorite is Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2.
I loved the scene where Metal Gear RAY appears on the tanker
and afterwards there's a battle scene with Solid Snake.
It was one of the inspirations behind my game "Shadow."
The game was definitely the next evolution of 3D tactical espionage action,
but Kojima had a shock for anyone expecting
to spend a lot more time with Solid Snake.
In a controversial second act twist, the game switched out protagonists
and put players in control of newcomer Raiden.
The change of heroes was deliberate
and focused purely on growing the fan base for the series.
After MGS, Solid Snake's popularity grew.
He became an icon for the game
and I thought that would make it difficult for the players to relate to him.
So, by creating a new main character, Raiden,
players were able to let go of their attachment to Solid Snake and have him be just another soldier.
But to the team's surprise, the reactions to Raiden as the new main character
were not universally positive.
I do understand why some fans rejected Raiden...
But personally, I don't think it was a mistake to make him the main character...
You will understand why once you play MGS4.
Despite criticisms from players who desperately missed playing as Solid Snake,
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty went on to become
the biggest-selling game in the entire franchise.
Metal Gear Solid 2 was filled with some of the most spectacular visuals
and cinematic scenes that video game players had ever seen.
Stunning water effects, complex physics, deep layers of environmental interactivity,
and truly mesmerizing cutscenes were some of the calling cards for the game.
The complicated story starts with a prologue
that takes place two years after the events in Metal Gear Solid.
The action begins with a dramatic leap off the George Washington Bridge
as Solid Snake infiltrates a tanker ship
to investigate the creation of a new powerful Metal Gear.
During his infiltration Snake combats invading soldiers
who have come to steal the new Metal Gear, called RAY.
Snake also comes face-to-face with his old nemesis, Revolver Ocelot,
who has had his severed arm replaced by the nanite-infested arm of Liquid Snake.
In a very tense face-off, Ocelot murders the commanding officers on the ship
and sets off explosives to sink it before escaping in Metal Gear RAY.
And Solid Snake is apparently lost in the wreckage...
Metal Gear Solid 2 picks up two years later and introduces Raiden as the playable character.
Raiden infiltrates Big Shell, an offshore clean-up facility that has been
overrun by terrorists and attempts to rescue the hostages locked-up in the installation.
During his mission, Raiden battles extraordinary foes like Fatman,
a bomb-throwing *** with a predilection for in-line skates.
Fortune, a woman with the power to make every bullet miss her.
And νamp, a creepy, seemingly immortal killer with a taste for blood.
It doesn't take long for Raiden to recognize
that things are not like they seem.
Big Shell turns out to be a development facility
for a new Metal Gear called Arsenal, that has been commandeered by Solidus Snake,
another genetic clone and brother to Liquid and Solid Snake.
In the latter stages of Metal Gear Solid 2,
the story veers in an entirely new and thought-provoking direction,
suggesting that Raiden is actually a character in a Metal Gear video game.
There's a point where the game goes to a "Game Over" screen,
and so you think, "I messed up, I died. But I didn't die?"
But the gameplay is still going on in that little window.
Kojima signifies that it's still a game, but you nevertheless
get completely sucked in because of all these other things he's doing
to make it feel immersive and believable.
Raiden must face up to the doubts that he has in the world around him
before he can stop Solidus, and with Solid Snake's help, uncover the truth
about The Patriots, the shadowy, conspiratorial organization that has
been the dominant force behind the events in the Metal Gear games.
Needless to say, the complex narrative was a little overwhelming
for some Metal Gear fans.
We received a lot of positive feedback after MGS1 was released. People liked how we combined story with action gameplay.
So when we started work on MGS2, I considered not creating much of a story.
However, when I told that to people,
they all told me that the greatest thing about MGS was its emphasis on storyline coupled with great action.
So, I decided to develop a storyline...
But because this was a sequel I thought I needed to make the story more complex.
I guess I made it too complicated... That's one of my regrets with MGS2.
For Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater,
the newly formed Kojima Productions decided
to take a more down-to-earth approach.
For the story of MGS3, I decided to take a very simple, clean approach.
I focused on the relationship between Snake and The Boss.
The reaction to this approach was very positive, which I'm very happy about.
As the PlayStation 2 was handily beating the competition
in the console wars during the early years of this decade,
demand for a new Metal Gear game grew.
And this time Kojima Productions was prepared to release two epic
Metal Gear Solid adventures in a single console generation.
In truth, my original plan was to release MGS3 on PLAYSTATION 3.
But no matter how long we waited, PS3 wasn't ready to launch.
There came a time when we realized that we couldn't wait any longer,
So we developed MGS3 for PlayStation 2 instead.
Usually when you shift up to next generation hardware,
the game benefits because it brings the gameplay up to the next level.
However, this time, because we couldn't rely on the console, we decided
to perfect the jungle and nature scenery --this was said to be impossible to do on the PS2.
And thus, the survival game concept was born.
Taking things in an entirely different direction, the developers chose to set
Metal Gear Solid 3 in the past, at the roots of the Metal Gear legacy.
The prequel would take into account real-world tensions
at the height of the Cold War in the early 1960's.
Once again, players would be in control of someone other than
Solid Snake and would instead play as Naked Snake,
a CIA operative that is sent into the jungles of Russia with his mentor,
a female super spy code-named The Boss.
In the prologue mission, The Boss defects and teams up with
the chief antagonist in the story, Colonel νolgin.
After an intense fight, The Boss leaves Naked Snake badly wounded,
as she and νolgin make off with a stolen nuclear super tank
and a predecessor to the Metal Gear, called the Shagohad.
After healing, Naked Snake is sent back into the jungle to defeat νolgin,
confront The Boss, and destroy the tank.
To do this, Snake must face the members of The Boss's Cobra Unit.
Many gamers have called these characters
the greatest collection of bosses in the entire franchise.
The End is an expert sniper that fights Snake in a long-range
protracted battle that can literally take hours.
The Fear is a spider-like adversary with double-jointed limbs
and a surgically enhanced tongue.
The Fury is a former Russian cosmonaut who battles Snake with a flamethrower.
The Pain has the ability to command hornets and uses them to combat Snake.
The Sorrow, a spirit medium, is perhaps the most interesting of
all the bosses in the game because he employs the power of the dead to fight Snake.
You are walking through this stream and just seeing these dead soldiers
and you're like, OK, dead soldiers. Then you start to notice, wait a second...
These are the ghosts of the people that I've killed.
It makes you look back on what you've already done
and sort of see it in a different way --
Wow, I've really killed a lot of people.
If this was real life I would be completely haunted.
From beginning to end, MGS3 is the near perfect prequel,
setting up the events and characters that would follow it beautifully.
MGS3 also helped to define and cement the status
of Kojima Productions as world-class game makers.
The team had expertly shown how to get the most out of the PlayStation 2
hardware and had the sales and the critical praise to prove it.
I'd never played through all of the Metal Gear games.
So, I had what I call the "Metal Gear Summer"
and I played through MGS1, MGS2, and MGS3, back-to-back.
I didn't play anything else, and it was the best summer I'd ever had.
But would the team be able to contend
with another PlayStation console transition?
Kojima Productions' toughest challenges lay ahead,
as the team faced the limitless potential
and the baffling technological puzzles of the brand new PLAYSTATION 3.
I think the whole Metal Gear series has been
a huge part of the PlayStation's success.
The Metal Gear games, from the Psycho Mantis battle
to the jeep chase at the end of MGS1,
to the opening of MGS2 on the bridge,
to the torture sequences that live in all the games.
It really is almost like an action-movie art film.
Mr. Kojima has been a part of many achievements in the video game industry.
From my point of view as a creator, I believe
he showed the importance of storyline,
and the value that a good script can bring.
Mr. Kojima clearly demonstrated that in the game.
The announcement and development of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
represented a new era for Kojima Productions.
As polished storytellers,
versed both in cinematic flair and dynamic gameplay,
the new platform from Sony offered the experienced game makers
the opportunity to dream big.
Each boss character moves in a different way.
One has tentacles, another runs around like a dog.
We had to create each animation by hand, which was extremely difficult.
When the first Metal Gear Solid was created,
the production team was very open-minded,
and that spirit has lived on ever since.
With each subsequent release of a Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer,
the world grew more and more excited by the promising look of the game.
Was this the Sony PLAYSTATION 3's
most important game on the horizon?
To many it certainly looked that way.
If I were to describe MGS in baseball terms,
MGS1 is like little league baseball, or playing in a backyard field for fun.
MGS4 is best described as the big leagues.
The fan base, of course, grew and that kept us constantly aware
that we had taken on this huge responsibility in making MGS4.
The MGS series lets the player explore freely. They can ask: "What will happen if I do this?"
Or, "Maybe I would like to try that..."
The game covers most of the player's desires.
Having a wider range of gameplay options means that
when the player is wondering what they can do within the game,
the game never lets the player down.
Cut-scenes from previous Metal Gear games, as artful as they were,
don't hold a candle to the new look and feel of Metal Gear Solid 4,
which delivers imagery as close to reality as the team has ever come.
The keyword here is "camera shake,"
like when you're shooting with a hand-held camcorder.
I thought it was important to get that right.
So we developed a tool that simulates the shaking of a cameraman's hands.
Expectations from gamers and from the team itself were very high.
The work involved in bringing this game to the PLAYSTATION 3 was immense.
The team size at Kojima Productions had swelled considerably.
And the pressure was getting to Hideo Kojima...
The PLAYSTATION 3...
It's a next-generation console which has opened up a lot of doors for us,
but this also means we must create a lot more content.
This time we were able to use Hollywood movie-like production methods.
With MGS4, we had to create a lot more materials and we also challenged ourselves to expand the volume of gameplay.
But my biggest challenge has been the size of the team.
At peak, we had about 200 people working for me.
I think of it as 200 versus me.
It's been difficult to get every on the same page. It's been hard.
Mr. Kojima oversees this entire project.
His vision is very big,
and in order to execute his vision,
the size of the team and the project grew bigger.
We were aware that there are many Metal Gear fans around the world
waiting for this new title and that motivated us to work even harder.
I don't like giving people work, I'd rather do it myself.
I get stressed out about it, but I have no choice now.
The plan for the game was an epic send off for Solid Snake
and an end to his decades-long saga.
I'd have to say Old Snake's mental state is pretty ragged.
Now he's deteriorating badly and he's really paid quite a price
for his dedication to his country, to his job.
The epic scale of the game meant that this time Kojima and his team would
travel the world looking for appropriate locations
for the most dramatic of confrontations.
Sticking with his prescient ability to pick up on global concerns about the
military industrial complex, Kojima focused the narrative on the growing
influence of private military corporations.
Metal Gear Solid 4 brings back familiar faces that have come and gone over
the franchise's long lifetime and the developers worked hard to come to a
fitting conclusion for the series.
Since MGS4 is the last episode of the saga,
I wanted to make all the characters happy and bring back as many memorable characters as possible.
You will see how these characters have developed when you play the game.
But is this really the end for Solid Snake?
Personally...
Within Metal Gear Solid, I would like to make this the final chapter of the Solid Snake storyline.
Snake is an old man now. He's tired.
I think there will be another Metal Gear title.
However, I believe the series should continue with a fresh new character and a new storyline, without Solid Snake.
In its 20 years, Metal Gear has touched millions of lives.
There are fans of this series from all corners of the world.
Snake and his co-stars have entered video game
and popular culture with tremendous style.
And will forever be linked to the birth of the stealth action genre.
It was the first.
It's definitely a landmark series in video game history.
It's the ultimate stealth action game.
Will we see more Metal Gear games? Or has this series retired along with Solid Snake?
Don't give up looking under suspicious cardboard boxes just yet...
Although the Metal Gear series of games are fictional,
elements from the story are rooted in reality.
Whether taking inspiration from headlines around the globe,
or basing weapons and tactics on modern military applications,
the Metal Gear series of games has always been true to its real-world inspirations.
The real-world military plays a big part in the design of the Metal Gear games.
So much so, that Hideo Kojima's development team trained like soldiers.
When I was young, I wrote a novel.
I think I was an elementary school student.
It was an action-adventure story.
The main character was a hard-boiled action hero,
he drove a car and went on wild car chases.
Since I had never driven a car before,
I couldn't write it with a sense of realism.
It's different watching someone else drive from the passenger's seat.
It's hard to achieve realism without first-hand experience.
Metal Gear has a military combat theme at its core.
Being Japanese, I'd never handled a gun.
Training in the military and seeing it in the real world
helped us determine how we could enhance the entertainment of our game.
Training has also helped us create more realistic games,
which is why we make a point to do it during the development of each game.
To help with this training, Kojima-san recruited military man Motosada Mori to work with the team.
Mr. Kojima has a clear vision on military-related issues.
With military tactics,
whether we're taking about national militaries or PMCs,
the overall level of force, tactics,
and strategies aren't that much different.
Therefore, I didn't feel uncomfortable working on the MGS series.
When we were first creating Metal Gear, I had never held a gun before.
So, of course, I didn't know how to handle weapons.
After the training session with Mori,
I got to fire a real gun and by doing that...
This is somewhat difficult to explain, but...
During the whole training process, there were so many areas
for which without hands-on experience,
I would not have known how to convey them properly in the game.
Prior to the training, I had researched the military,
through books and so on.
However, taking part in the training,
firing the gun, walking and running like a soldier...
I've learned so much more than from just research books and other media.
And, I had a good time.
I believe this was absolutely necessary to help create Metal Gear.
This training helps the creators to see through the eyes of their characters,
furthering the development of not only their fictional personalities,
but the personalities of the developers as well.
When we block out a character's movement,
like when a character handles a gun
or when we place soldiers on a battlefield,
knowing how it works in real life helps a lot.
Since I've underwent training,
now when I watch an action movie and
a character handles a gun incorrectly,
I'll notice and react, "That's not right!"
My eyes have now been opened.
There are times when I wish that I didn't know all this.
Some of the technologies and devices employed in the
Metal Gear universe may not be so far-fetched.
For many, if not all, are based on real-world applications.
Since the first title was released,
many military and police personnel from around the world
have played the Metal Gear series.
They seemed to have liked what we've done so far.
To meet their expectations, we've gone through military training ourselves.
This should be apparent when you see the game.
The game is first and foremost entertainment,
so we had to take some creative freedoms.
However, a lot of the game is based on our military training,
like the handling of weapons, which is based on real-world tactics.
Many of these combat technologies are in use today and still others are
in the development stage for use by future military forces.
At the start of the war, we went in with ten unmanned ground systems.
There was only a few of the UAνs, unmanned aerial vehicles.
Now we've gone from ten on the ground to more than 5,000 on the ground.
You don't go out on an operation without one of
these unmanned ground systems with you.
And of course, we've introduced the first armed ones.
Same thing with in the air.
UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles, we go from just
a handful in the air to more than a thousand in the air.
Every single operation has them and they don't operate without them.
You don't go on convoy without having one of these systems above you.
Metal Gear REX,
which was featured in MGS1,
and also included in The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2,
is one of the mechanic units.
After that, I created one for Twin Snakes.
This REX is the third.
I generally start with work from the previous Metal Gear titles
and redesign from there.
As technology improves, we must update the framework structure
and that's how we create these mechanic units.
Mr. Shinkawa had already sketched out a combined version of REX.
So we refer to his model to build the design
and that's how we've come to the current version.
That's also how we worked on RAY.
The ever-present threat of nuclear warfare plays a prominent role in the
Metal Gear series, and Kojima-san has never shied away from creating game stories
with powerful sociopolitical messages.
When I wrote the scenario for MGS4,
some of the staff asked me
if the PMCs were something we had created for MGS4.
For many Japanese,
myself included,
we're not very aware of the existence of PMCs,
even though their presence is being felt around the world.
You've always had private actors in war.
But then something happens at the end of the Cold War.
The national militaries in the world get a lot smaller.
About six million soldiers are downsized.
The other thing that's happening on the demand side, is that you have one
superpower left standing, but it's not as interested in a lot of these areas
where it may have sent troops in the past.
So companies strive into that vacuum to fill it.
I don't think we will see companies take over everything, but I do think
we're going to see a return to the Medieval period.
Where, if you look back at the 1200's to 1400's you didn't just have
governments going at each other. You had dukes, kings, you had bishops...
You had the νatican with its own forces.
Then you had all of these free companies of knights going around
where they would work for one duke during this war and then when that
war ended, they'd go work for this king in this other war.
We may be seeing a return to that where you have strong governments
or the equivalent of kings. You have weak governments, you have mid-tier
ones like the old dukedoms, and then the parallel to those old free
companies are these new private military companies.
Where they're willing to work for all sorts of other actors.
They change names from time to time.
They used to be called mercenaries,
and now we call them PMCs.
They might be called private security companies in the future.
The names we give these things has changed as time goes on.
In the real world,
based on my research,
private military contractors are deeply connected
to the current wars and disputes.
They provide the war effort with anything it needs,
with equipment like unmanned machines.
These companies are making profits through this.
And the global economy is benefiting from all this commerce.
Unmanned machines are already used in combat.
I wanted people to see this reality.
To learn the truth
and see where the world is going
through playing the Metal Gear series.
I had a nuclear weapons theme in MGS1.
This time I focused on the growing power of private military companies,
the presence of unmanned machines and the plight of child soldiers.
I want people to become aware of these global realities by playing the game.
In order to convey realism in the game world, the team at Kojima Productions have not only
consulted with military advisors,
but they have also traveled extensively around the world,
to truly understand and represent the locations presented in the Metal Gear universe.
For MGS4, we decided to travel around the world,
just like the 007 series.
Previous titles were set mainly in one closed area.
Instead, this story spans the globe.
To determine locations for the game, it may appear that topography, political climate,
and architecture are all part of the criteria, but that's not necessarily the case...
I usually choose the locations that I would like to visit.
This time, we traveled to Morocco in the Middle East,
Peru in South America,
and Prague in Eastern Europe.
We chose New York for Metal Gear Solid 2,
so that we could discover the entire city.
Kojima-san and his team have logged tens of thousands of air miles
all in the name of realism.
I traveled with some of key members of the MGS staff.
Instead of adding sound to visuals, we traveled to the locations to record sounds
that will help players get a greater sense of the location.
Since the game is not set on a lonely battlefield or a place with no people,
we went to living locations...
There were people there. They were living their daily lives.
You could smell the reality, the living presence.
By visiting these places we were able to imagine what they'd be like in our game
which is set a few years in the future.
These villages are filled with beautiful people,
and I want players to keep that in mind.
With all this traveling, each member of the team has their own unique take
and affinity for certain places.
Prague was good,
and I personally liked Morocco as it had a huge impact on me.
We visited a city called Fez in Morocco.
We focused on the medina, the center part of the old city.
It's a maze of narrow streets.
I was really amazed by it.
Often times, it's Kojima himself that's behind the camera,
capturing reference material for the environment artists.
Areas of ongoing conflict make for obvious theatres of war.
Therefore I chose the Middle East, South America, and Eastern Europe.
We used an original microphone setup to record in surround,
however, we encountered some difficulties.
When we went to Yakushima to collect sounds for MGS3,
it was easy to balance out the quiet jungle areas because they were fairly similar.
But with MGS4, you have quiet Middle Eastern infiltration areas
coupled with villages with crowds of people.
This required two totally different approaches to the sound design.
It was extremely difficult.
The field recording this time wasn't as easy as the last.
Though Ryan and Mr. Imaizumi were worried,
I went out in the middle of the night and early morning
to avoid people and to record sounds.
I went to Peru for this research trip.
We wanted to collect materials from mountains that offered
a different look compared to the thick jungles found in MGS3.
Therefore we chose Peru.
Since it's at a very high elevation,
we developed altitude sickness.
I remember that it was really hard for us to work half of the time because of that.
Since MGS4 is set in many places...
The Middle East, South America, Eastern Europe...
I thought it would be a good idea to change the tone for each locale.
For the Middle East,
I decided to make it dusty with matted and subdued colors.
For Eastern Europe,
it rains often so I made the whole city more shiny.
I tried to use different color tones for each area.
It is also during these expeditions that the game designers find new inspiration
that can even change previously held notions.
What did I find amazing...?
Well, the Inca ruins. This huge wide-open area appears...
You see the Inca buildings and structures.
Within this open area, stone steps suddenly appear.
The contrast between natural environments and man-made structures is
nicely harmonized and makes for beautiful scenery.
That's what I remember the most.
Out of the Middle East stages,
I'm proud of the urban ruins area and the narrow arcade path.
Those two areas really capture the essence of what I experienced in Morocco.
The smell and the atmosphere left a huge impact on me.
I'm satisfied that what I've created in the game
reflects what I saw and felt.
I was in charge of lighting,
and I always tried to convey that smell
into the lighting of the game.
Like the military training the team at Kojima Productions partakes in,
the reference material enables everyone on the team to truly understand
the visual experience the game is trying to replicate.
These photos and videos allow the artists to accurately reproduce
the textures seen in the real world.
It might be because I was in the Peru travel group,
but I like what we did with the South American Naomi tracking part.
We spent quite a lot of time creating this area.
There's a river that runs through there...
You can feel the purity
and the clean fresh air.
It makes you wish you were just sitting and relaxing instead of fighting.
That's how beautiful it is.
In turn, these realistic graphics helped immerse the gamer into a world
they might otherwise never have visited.
Whether it's the mortar and brick holding together a crumbling building,
or the native flora swaying effortlessly in a cool breeze,
each begins from a piece of reference material collected on-site from around the world.
Metal Gear's rich characters are some of the most memorable and finely crafted in the entire medium.
And as each successive title in the franchise is launched
Kojima Productions has risen to the challenge of out-doing their previous work.
MGS4 is the last episode of Metal Gear Saga.
I brought back as many memorable characters as possible.
I wanted to make the characters happy...
And MGS4 was the vehicle for this big reunion.
If you play MGS4,
you'll see how these characters develop.
The process of designing a character begins as a brainstorming session
between Kojima and Shinkawa.
Sasaki then scrutinizes the drawing and with the modelers fleshes it out further
before the team proceeds with motion capture and key-frame animation
that will embody all of the character's movements.
It's at this point that an actor is brought in to give the character a voice.
And once all these elements are assembled together,
the team has a living and breathing character for the game.
The first time we saw the artwork of Old Snake that Mr. Shinkawa created,
everybody was shocked. I just couldn't imagine Snake being so old.
But then we created the model based on the sketch,
and implemented the model into the game.
Suddenly, we became very used to the idea of an older Snake.
I'm so comfortable with Old Snake, his younger look now seems foreign to me.
Even though the Old Snake character surprised us at first,
I'm happy with the end product.
Even though they've collaborated for years on Metal Gear,
Kojima never ceases to surprise Shinkawa.
Especially after he learned that Snake would return as an old man.
Mr. Kojima is a person who consistently surprises me.
He's somebody you cannot predict.
At the first stage of development,
we discuss with Mr. Shinkawa about how the characters should look.
After that we create the characters with 3D polygons.
And then we render them all in high resolution.
However, it's quite common that after that process,
the final model looks different from what Mr. Shinkawa had envisioned.
So, in that situation we will go back and forth on the designs with him,
until we are all satisfied.
This isn't limited to the Metal Gear series,
but is true for all the games I create...
When you actually play my games,
I don't want people to play them just for fun,
or because they have nothing else to do.
I want the players to find something more,
to enrich their lives through games.
Something more than just playing...
Your outlook on life might change as a result of playing Metal Gear Solid.
You'll learn many things...
You may share your feelings and become closer to your family and friends.
A core aspect of the Metal Gear series is this process
of give and take with the player.
This is how I make the stories and structure of Metal Gear.
And give life to the characters.
When it comes to populating the world of Metal Gear Solid 4,
Kojima Productions has employed a group of world-class actors
that have the depth and range to bring the game's colorful characters to life.
Akio Otsuka returns to voice Snake as an aging character,
which presented its own set of challenges.
You start to understand more...
More about how the layers of human feelings work
as you age and gain experience.
As I grow older, I've developed a greater "sense" about me.
Thinking back to how I was when I was young,
and then comparing myself now,
I think I care more about the people around me more
than when I was young.
Like his Japanese counterpart,
actor and screenwriter David Hayter returns to voice Solid Snake.
There's been a lot of stuff in this game that just blew me away story-wise, and surprised me.
"War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control..."
"All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction."
With this returning cast of actors,
Kojima Productions has ensured the continuity between each of the games in the Metal Gear series.
Nanotech scientist Naomi Hunter makes a reappearance,
and once again she is played by Jennifer Hale.
To work with people of this caliber, I mean...
This company is amazing. They always have their act together.
They always have great stories, great scripts, great people.
The producer is just spot-on.
And as an actor, that's a dream. You just show up and do whatever they say.
To help define and shape the beauties in the Beauty and Beast creations,
Kojima Productions organized an elaborate photo shoot in Los Angeles, California.
Hundreds of photos were taken of each model
to help create the digital characters for the game back home in Tokyo.
When I first heard about the Beauty and Beast concept,
one about beautiful people turning into beasts,
I was very impressed by the idea.
Personally I didn't want to end as a beast.
I was so excited to hear that the beasts turn into beautiful women.
This concept surprised me.
It was fun but difficult to perform.
I personally have never experienced war,
and because of this,
it was difficult to express my character's deep longing.
I put a lot of thought into it.
There are four characters in BB Corps.
Raven...
Wolf...
Octopus...
And I was Mantis.
However, I didn't have any clue how those creatures move.
So I researched them online.
But most of the info I gathered was about how the female eats the male.
That, and how the female mantis strikes with her limbs and eats their mates.
Not surprisingly, I struggled with how to perform the character.
I discussed this with Mr. Kojima.
Since my character controls all the other BB Corps members,
I applied and mixed each character movement with mine.
This included Octopus, Raven, and Wolf.
I was surprised to hear about the concept of four female bosses,
and then when I heard that they would be the apart of a female-only boss unit,
I was completely surprised...
Especially as a long-time fan of the MGS series.
I'm a huge fan of Laughing Octopus.
We've packed a lot of humor into this boss.
I don't want to give too much away...
I want you to play the game first.
So I'll just say that Laughing Octopus is one of the best characters.
All of the Beasts are made to look very artistic and sophisticated.
After you down each Beast,
you'll see its inner beauty emerge.
Since I found them all so attractive,
it was great fun checking the bugs on those scenes.
With the Beauty and the Beast, we have the beautiful voices of the female characters.
And then on top of that, we have the voice of Fred Tatasciore. Who's the voice of the beast,
who has a very sinister voice to him. It's very deep and very chilling.
"Come on Snake! Laugh with me! Laugh, laugh! Laugh with me, Snake!"
Beast is the demonic entity that is the worst end of four victims of war.
And the foes that you see in this game are actually victims themselves.
And you have one of rage, one of sorrow, one of madness, and one of just absolute psychosis.
And I get to play the character, the demon, at their worst right before they're unraveling.
Phil LaMarr plays νamp,
the former Dead Cell member with the preternatural-like abilities of a vampire.
I remember auditioning for it and Kris Zimmerman, the director, kept saying, "creepier."
And basically, at the very beginning, I just stopped breathing, in order to do the voice.
It moved so far back in my throat, that it became not alive.
The first game, it was rare when a strike actually hurt him, so most of my stuff was very subtle.
This time, there is actual pain.
There's blows that should kill him, but don't. And that's always fun to play.
The I've just been gutted with my own sword, and now I'm grinning, and moving down my own sword toward you.
A lot of imagination there... Like, where does that hurt?
It was powerful and yet...
Sticky.
This battle with these two powerful characters...
I'm not sure there's a more intense fight scene out there.
I didn't think about anything other than this fight.
I was completely fascinated by it.
In making that scene,
Mr. Kojima was very flexible.
We tried many different approaches.
We joked with each other while doing so, which helped me relax.
As intense as the motion capture in a Metal Gear game is, for Metal Gear Solid 4, the actors
were also required to memorize and perform copious amounts of dialogue.
In order to memorize all the script lines,
I went to a café...
I had my coffee, cigarette and script.
I sat there and repeated my lines over and over again.
Kenyu Horiuchi returns as Raiden.
It was like his pain was my pain.
I felt the heart ache
during their fight.
There's an energy that happens between two actors when they're working together.
There was a great give and take with Phil and I. And there were times when I was in the moment
in my character, and there were other times when I got an opportunity to sit back and watch Phil work.
In doing that, that is like playing with a great tennis player.
It makes you want to rise to the occasion, and take the ball, and slam it down their throat.
This time around, Raiden became much tougher and yet his heart still aches.
Even though he might be a cyborg, and might be immortal.
He's still much more human.
A new character to the Metal Gear cast is Drebin,
memorably voiced by newcomer to the franchise, Khary Payton.
It's just bigger and better and bolder.
They continue to just turn the crank, to ratchet it up.
He's been influenced by working in the field,
and by being surrounded by war.
However, I think he treats all this as his job.
He doesn't seem to care about the war and the fact that people are dying.
So when I performed this part, I tried to making it sound like
I was just doing my job.
I wanted to reflect a sense of irresponsibility in my voice...
As if all this is a casual to him as selling vegetables.
I tried to add some lightness to his voice.
And never far from Drebin is another new character in Metal Gear Solid 4, a gibbon, named Little Gray.
Like parents and their child,
Drebin and Little Gray trust each other.
Yet, they know that someday
that they'll go their separate ways.
They're never apart, are they?
I sometimes think Little Gray just wants to have a drink.
And maybe that's why he's with Drebin.
I don't think they care about each other that much.
However, I think having that monkey around
adds to Drebin.
As a character, I think Drebin was enhanced by Little Gray.
I was asked if I could perform motion-capture like a monkey...
I told them, "Of course. As a kid I'd play around and act like a monkey with friends."
So when I tried out for the role at the auditions
they all said, "We've found our Little Gray!"
It's one of the great things about this series of games.
They treat the aging process very realistically.
Otacon, he's definitely gotten older.
There's been a lot of tragedy in his life, so that starts to wear on a character after awhile.
Otacon got handsome, didn't he?
When he first appeared, he totally looked like a complete otaku.
I guess he's been through so many stages of life,
and matured in the process.
So I kept that in mind and reflected that in my performance.
The character design just freaked me out.
They really help, as an actor, to look at what you look like.
I can feel how νamp feels.
Being undead, and his wish to have a dramatic ending to his life,
is pretty close to the themes found in my movies.
I have some empathy for νamp.
Not because I understand how he feels,
but as a theme, like in a film,
I understand this character very well.
Sunny has such an important role in this game.
And she is such a beautiful character.
First I was little bit hesitant to do her voice,
but realized how fortunate I am to play such a wonderful character like her.
I was overjoyed.
In the role of Liquid Ocelot is veteran Banjo Ginga,
who previously played Liquid Snake and Major Zero in the series.
I find it much more fun to play a villain.
It allows me to have more emotional range.
"This man's body has served me well..."
"It enabled me to pass every security barrier between me and G.W..."
"After all, the Patriots' security system is nothing more than a machine."
Paul Eiding voices Solid Snake's commanding officer, Colonel Roy Campbell,
who comes out of retirement to support Snake in his last mission.
For me it was a film.
There was so much video involved, and there was so much story involved.
The one thing that kept her alive, for me, was that Snake was always in the background.
And that deep connection, that maybe that one true love...
You know that no matter where you go in your life, there's still that one connection
that you have with someone that you will never forget.
That was what, kind of what kept me alive as Meryl in this game.
In regular training,
moving crisply is the key.
But at times, Mr. Kojima told me that I moved too energetically, like a young hero.
He advised me to move a bit more like an old man.
I wasn't sure about my performance of two knives slashing.
I trained on how to move like a samurai, with a Japanese samurai sword.
Every time he puts out a new game everyone else has to step up,
because the bar just goes higher and higher.
The final, intensely collaborative product is a group of game characters that are each
not only unique, but have become iconic creations unto themselves.
This has been Kojima Productions' winning formula since characters
like Snake and Big Boss first appeared in video games more than two decades ago.
From the beginning, the Metal Gear games have always delivered state-of-the-art audio
as part of the gameplay experience.
For the audio team at Kojima Productions the expectations were set very high for
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
The game was expected to not only match previous efforts but far exceed them.
No one has been putting more pressure on the team than the team itself.
There are many different aspects and layers to the audio featured in a video game.
It's not just a matter of adding in music, voice over, and sound effects.
Each of these aspects has to be individually created and recorded first,
and then seamlessly blended into a surround sound experience that plays out in real-time.
It really is a very visceral experience when you have the sound on.
Mr. Kojima worked very closely with Mr. Tojima with a lot of ideas he had for a next generation game.
So, you're going to see this with MGS4 that not only is it going to be in 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound,
but that we're doing a lot of different things that people haven't attempted before.
When you combine the power of the PLAYSTATION 3 hardware
with Kojima Production's strong vision,
the result is really quite tremendous.
The sound design we've implemented using
the new hardware is extremely advanced and complex.
It's really hard to imagine how we can top what we've done.
First you've got sound streaming off the Blu-ray disc...
Plus all of the multi-streaming running off the hardware.
They all must work together to generate rich and layered sounds.
These elements are all dependant on one another.
Controlling them has been extremely difficult.
However, I believe we were able create very exciting sound for the game.
I play the working versions of the game to help me create a unique sound.
Once I have created those sounds, I hand them to the programmers who put them in the game.
Rounding out the soundscape is the musical score used to create ambience,
evoke an emotional response, or resonate a particular moment in the game.
Being a film composer, mostly I'm used to watching a picture and getting my inspiration from there.
But without the images at this stage I had to depend a lot on what
Hideo Kojima told me about what he wanted from me.
So, I think we have a strong theme. He told me that Snake is on his last legs.
He's getting a little old now. So I wanted a kind of deliberate, firm theme.
Acoustic guitar was his idea.
There's something a little innocent but also macho.
Hideo Kojima has a great interest in film,
music and sound design.
We've benefited from having many people's expertise on the series...
This includes many people from Hollywood.
The most memorable and exciting moment was
arriving at Skywalker Ranch.
It was a place Mr. Kojima and I had both dreamt of visiting.
That dream finally came true.
Performing voice over for MGS4 is not merely reciting lines on a page.
The stories in the Metal Gear series are deeper and more complicated than many movies or novels.
As such, every actor must perform as if their character were a real nuanced person,
in an effort to maintain realism and to assure an emotional investment from the player.
I tried to keep variety in mind. You don't want all your villains sounding the same.
So, you try to hone out the individual traits that each of these villains would have.
Ocelot is so incredibly flamboyant.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to play a villain.
I think playing bad guys are so much more enjoyable
and more interesting than normal characters.
Whereas νamp is so stealthily villainous.
You try to choose the actors, that match the traits of the character
and the drawing and the description.
"Snake, as you'll recall, following the Shadow Moses Incident nine years ago..."
"Naomi was detained by the authorities, but someone arranged for her escape..."
I had to work with Kris and the producers on developing the voice that they were looking for,
to match this newer, war-torn post-apocalyptic cyber ninja, Raiden.
"You made me the hunter, but you are also the hunted."
Mr. Kojima allowed me to perform the part as I saw fit.
Then, if I got off track, he would give me direction and help me through it.
His advice really helped my performance, allowing me to smoothly record my part.
Having a director at the recording sessions,
explaining his vision for the project is a rare treat.
This is quite a rarity in our industry.
Mr. Kojima directed me through the difficult scenes
so that I didn't get lost.
And he explains me his vision very clearly.
He made my job so much easier.
When the MGS4 project started and we started thinking about how we were going to
approach voice over work, we had a pretty good outline of how we were going to approach it.
We had, a substantial sized script. But we didn't really think it was going to take more than a few months.
And so here I sit now, just wrapping up the ninth session after ten months of working on and
off with Kris and the team. We haven't sacrificed anything to make a high-quality experience.
Before, it was all about the graphics and the gameplay.
It's now slowly becoming about getting in the right actors and making sure it sounds good.
If I could use one word to describe it, it would be realism.
There are many kinds of gunshots in the game.
A big part of the sound design process for the Metal Gear games begins here in the foley studio.
With a seemingly endless variety of items that range from the bizarre and obscure,
to products you'll find in almost any household.
The foley artist uses these instruments to represent what is seen on screen.
Sometimes the most obvious choices work, as seen here with different footwear
representing the diverse footsteps for each character.
While other products become sound effects for items that are not so apparent.
"This is Snake. Do you read me?"
What happens if it's the first time a player hears it?
"This is Snake. Do you read me?"
Excellent!
The quality of the script and the length of the scripts are starting to feel a lot more like feature films.
You know, years ago doing a video game was just short choppy lines that involved the gameplay.
But once these stories started evolving and these wonderful scripts, like Metal Gear...
You can really get some nice pieces of acting out of the actors.
I think Kris tends to ride these guys a little hard.
She wants to make sure that she's getting everything out of these guys.
Then again, she's known these guys for years and years.
You can have your panic attack here. 172, and...
"Damn it! They got the Mk.III! It's all over, Snake!"
Good. Not only volume, but you're heart-broken, here.
The characters, especially the soldiers, have different emotional states and so we had to
go through this process, Kris and I, of recording hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
lines of dialogue that will come up, depending on the emotional state of the soldier.
We're recording the same lines but with these different emotional undertones.
So, that whole process is very complex because obviously with work very close with
the programmers to make sure that it comes out at proper states.
So, that process has been very tiring but I think ultimately rewarding,
because you're not going to have a static performance every time you play the game.
I feel very fortunate to be doing Metal Gear Solid 4 because it seems to be a culmination
of everything that we've been doing with the previous games.
The strings can give it a tragic kind of nature but you may not want that so much.
This time we tried something new...
We recorded the voices for MGS4 after motion-capture.
For previous titles, we recorded most of our audio
before work on the 3D models was finished, and before motion capture.
But we noticed it was difficult to convey distance properly in certain scenes.
There were times when the characters were far apart and speaking in normal tones...
We would have wanted them to yell instead.
Other times two characters would be yelling, even though they were standing face-to-face.
So this time, we recorded the audio after work on the models and motion capture was complete.
The Japanese animation has already been set forth and it's already locked in.
And we work with motion capture actors that were recorded in Japan.
So we have the scenes physically acted out by the motion capture actors.
And then we go in and add the U.S. voices to that, so we have to make sure that it matches
the raising of a hand, the *** of a head.
Doing it to the Japanese motion control actors was very, very funny, and at the same time,
so effective for performance, because they do little things with their bodies and every time
he moves or he reaches up for something I can put that into the voice.
It's much better for performance.
It's very funny to watch the behind-the-scenes as it's coming together.
Especially the monkey, who is played by a guy, a regular-sized guy.
And he's walking around and doing his monkey thing.
Once the sound effects, the voice acting, and the layers of music are completed
and incorporated into the game, they are tuned to perfection, so that the
overall experience of Metal Gear Solid 4 is amplified and unforgettable.
The capital city of Hyogo Prefecture, Kobe, is a major port
located in the southern region of Japan.
It's in this city where Hideo Kojima began his illustrious career in video games.
We started in Kobe, Japan
as "Kaihatsu-gobu" (Developer 5).
I was in charge of a team of about 10 people.
I believe it was back in 1993.
Kobe seemed like an idyllic place for the young team to create games,
but in the early hours of Tuesday, January 17, 1995, as many commuters
were about to begin their day... The Great Hanshin Earthquake devastated Kobe.
After the Hanshin Earthquake,
we decided to move to Osaka.
After moving to Osaka for a short time, we thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to relocate to Tokyo.
The team decided to move across the country to Ebisu in Tokyo,
to finish work on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
And then later, the newly formed Kojima Productions had an office across town in Roppongi Hills,
where the team celebrated the completion of MGS3: Snake Eater.
In 1996, we relocated to Ebisu, Tokyo.
We then started recruiting people from Tokyo.
Kojima Productions was born.
However, it is here in Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi where Kojima Productions
have now set up shop and are working on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Roppongi is famous for being the international district.
It used to be a place where the American military used to hang out.
There's lots of bars, lots of clubs, and it's still that way now.
But it's become more of a business district.
We've been here for four years now, making games.
The company's various moves over the years pale in comparison
to the frequent flier miles that Kojima-san and his crew rack up
in order to salute their many fans across the world.
Every year the video game world holds several key events to bring developers
and gamers together, and Kojima Productions sets up shop at almost all of them.
The annual Electronic Entertainment Exposition, or E3, began in 1995 in Los Angeles, California.
The conference stopped in Atlanta for a couple of years
before returning to Southern California for the past decade.
But it was here at E3 in Atlanta 1997, that Metal Gear Solid,
for the original PlayStation, first made its global debut.
The gaming world hasn't been the same since.
Meanwhile back home in Japan and virtually in Kojima Productions'
backyard, the Tokyo Game Show first opened its doors in 1996,
and the company has been a regular attendee ever since.
The show is especially important to Kojima and
his colleagues because it is open to the general public.
I think it's important to go to events around the world.
It's a way for me to meet gamers and fans from all over the globe.
There, I can speak with fans directly
and feed off their positive energy.
In the Southern hemisphere, the GO3 Exhibition
takes place in Perth, Australia. And in 2007
Hideo Kojima was a featured speaker.
If I stayed in Japan, I wouldn't have the chance to get to know
the fans in America, Europe, or Asia.
By attending video gaming events around the globe,
I get direct feedback from the fans.
I learn which parts of the games they like, what makes a game popular,
or how big a title is in a given market.
These are the things I get to learn first hand.
Seeing these things with my own eyes helps me direct games.
This is similar to undergoing military training.
It helps to make great games.
Held annually since 2002, the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany plays
plays host to thousands of gamers and game makers, and has become a crucial stop
for Kojima Productions during their video game convention globetrotting.
At the inaugural Entertainment 4 All expo held in October 2007 in Los Angeles,
Kojima Productions offered attendees the first playable taste of Metal Gear Solid 4 in North America.
I think it's the biggest game at this show. I really do think so.
From the very beginning, on Thursday morning we had 100 guys lined up to play the game.
Kojima Productions has also hosted launch events for their games at local
stores where players can come and meet some of the Metal Gear creators.
Over the airwaves, members of Kojima Productions regularly take part in, and
even host radio and online broadcasts as a way of reaching out to the fans.
Hundreds of thousands of listeners tune into new recordings of the Kojima
Productions Report every week for the latest in Metal Gear news and information.
The fans, I think they appreciate the work.
They love to know what's going on behind the scenes.
Which is why we've been making a point over the past few years,
to be a little more open and let them peak into the studio.
From the very start, staying in touch with what gamers have to say about
their work has been a central defining aspect of the team at Kojima Productions.
This respect for their audience will continue as the team moves on,
beyond Metal Gear Solid 4.
I feel lucky, I'm doing something different every day.
One day I'm in Hollywood. The next day, I'm in Australia.
And the next day I'm in a country in Eastern Europe. I'm in Africa.
This project, MGS4, has taking me around the world and I'm very grateful for that.
When I was ten years old, my dad moved us out to more of a rural area.
And so, all of a sudden, I'm kind of by myself, just me and my little brother.
And I found myself spending more time inside and playing a lot more games.
I think that's what really kinda kicked things off.
I would have rather him be outside. With these two acres that we've got,
they could've done lots of fun things out here. But, they'd rather be down there,
with their buddies playing these games. They'd have a whole bunch of friends over.
Friday nights...
Drinking all my Pepsi, and Cokes, and...
Saturday nights...
Everything I'd buy and bring home,
The kids would come and just take it out of my pantry.
There'd be nothing left.
Sunday mornings...
They'd be down there all night and into the next morning playing video games.
It really wasn't until I got the first PlayStation and I saw what games had become.
With a CD-based format, you have voice overs,
you have a more cinematic quality and experience.
That was a really big change for me.
I moved on from being a gamer to more interested in the creative aspect.
Everything that goes into these games, all of a sudden, isn't just about the gameplay.
It's about the music and the voice overs and the total experience.
So it really was when Metal Gear Solid hit that I realized that...
Wow, this is a totally different direction than I thought that
video games would ever go in and I want to be involved.
I've done about 15 trips across the pond from Tokyo to LA for this project alone.
I think this is my twelfth trip to LA this year and we're only in October.
I expect to have three or four more before New Years.
Well, I've always been a bit of a workaholic, even in university.
I was working while studying at a pretty difficult school.
And it wasn't about making money, but I just...
I always need to be stimulated. I always need to be working on something.
Ryan was always driven, he's always wanted to be an overachiever.
He took the toughest classes he could.
I knew he'd be like a workaholic, that was obvious.
Because he was always doing something with school and writing and internships.
With Ryan, he tended to balance his life pretty well,
as far as his studies, his social life, and his video games.
I had a vague idea that he'd land in the video game industry.
He was always writing about it, he started a website for video game reviews.
Ryan works really hard.
He is the hardest working American that I've ever known.
So, I've always kept myself busy, which is why, I think, this job
has been a perfect fit. Because it keeps me busy around the clock.
I think people have been pretty receptive to an American face of the studio.
Here we've finally got somebody who was born and raised in America.
Who's not doing this for fame or for fortune, but really out of love for games.
This is why I've been sacrificing my weekends and not seeing my family for three years now.
The day had come that I was going. I had my bags packed,
I was ready to move to Japan. My parents knew this was going to happen, I think.
When I entered university and I started studying Japanese, I think they could tell that,
one of these day's he's going to move to Japan and use this language that he's been studying.
So, sure enough, that day came.
It was hard, but it was really hard watching Kathy,
when we left him in Seattle to get on the plane to go to Japan.
I physically could not get my legs to move. I just stood there.
It was incredibly hard.
It was one of the hardest things I've ever seen...
Watching my wife, watch her son go off to a very different land than ours.
We all thought he'd come back pretty soon, but he started liking it.
And started working a lot, and landed the Kojima job.
Everyone was really proud of him.
That was really nice, to actually see him do something.
Being in Tokyo, being in Roppongi specifically, where the studio is,
where I'm living, it's a weird place because it's very international.
We have the coffee shops, the same restaurants that you would find on the west coast of the United States.
Being here in Tokyo and working at the studio, it's been a great privilege,
but I don't really spend a lot of time at home here in this confined space. A lot of work.
The environment, it's very clean, it's very safe, and I'm pretty fortunate for that.
It took a while, I think, to earn the trust of Mr. Kojima.
Everybody who joins the studio, we almost have 200 people working on MGS4...
Everybody's got motivation, they have a purpose or a goal
that they want to fulfill by joining this studio, by doing those long hours.
And obviously Mr. Kojima wants to know that. So it took him some time.
We had a lot of quality time when we were researching the game
in Eastern Europe, and we went on that weeklong stay.
All these different trade shows, from Tokyo Game Show to E3,
where we're sharing every meal together. That's how he got to know me,
and know that I'm not doing this for fame or to get my name out there.
I'm doing this because I love Metal Gear.
After about a year and a half, I think he was willing to give me a chance.
My specific role on the game is really hard to describe
because every day I'm doing something different.
In Japan, on almost every video game development team,
you have the token gaijin, the token foreigner who is in charge of English.
I'm one of the producers on the title, I'm an assistant producer.
Which means that I can work on all elements of the game.
I'm traveling around the world on research trips.
I'm helping with masters submissions, I'm helping with packaging,
I'm helping with gameplay balancing.
For a guy like me who needs constant stimulation, it's perfect.
We were able to visit his office the last time we were in Tokyo.
I know it is unusual for people to go in and visit while they were working.
And I was just amazed at how many people were there and how hard they were working.
When I walked into the place... Here he's got 200 guys on one floor of this building.
And they all have their PlayStation and they have their computer and
their two monitors putting out heat, plus them, all in there.
They got the air conditioning going full blast and it's still hot in there.
How do they get guys to do this?
But they must have a passion for it.
When I was over there, and I saw him in Japan,
it was cool to see him in his element and interacting with people.
It's completely different than when he's over here.
I find that the people that I've met, that Ryan has introduced us to, that he works with,
they seem to have a really great working relationship with Ryan.
It's always interesting when you have something that I've been working on
and that a certain team has been working on for so long,
to have a new person come in, there's always that, "What's going to happen over here?"
How much are you going to try to change?
I think Ryan and I really see eye-to-eye on the characters.
I think that we also see eye-to-eye on the performances,
to the point where, in the session he'll be starting to say something
and I'll say it to the actor and we'll both say, "Get out of my head!"
Working with Ryan was great.
Talk about somebody who's on it and has an encyclopedic knowledge of what to draw on.
Ryan and Kris, they're like a machine.
You put 'em together and you've got a working machine. It's amazing.
With the exception of a few French nationals, our staff here is mostly Japanese.
I'd say our game development staff in Japan is about 90% Japanese.
However, you need to have diversity in order to create games for the global market.
That's why Ryan is here to look over the different elements of the game.
I don't mean to say that Ryan is necessarily representing America.
But by taking his suggestions and incorporating them into the game,
he is helping shape MGS4 in a unique and different way.
I'm very thankful for his help.
We have 200 people working on this game for three years,
who dedicate every day of their lives to it,
including a lot of weekends, and they're going home on the last train.
Those are the real stars in the studio.
I'm grateful for what I've been given,
but at other times I feel almost a certain sense of guilt
because you get credit for stuff you don't do.
My family and getting back home to the States are always in the back of my mind.
But I've got a number of ideas for games, and I've pitched several ideas to Mr. Kojima.
Nothing that's gone through any kind of pre-production phase,
but I'm always thinking and I'm always waiting for that opportunity.
I miss my family.
If there was ever a reason to go back home it would be to spend more time with my family.
I have a great job, I live in a great city.
But it lacks one thing, and that is my family.
We've been very fortunate that Ryan's been home.
In fact, he might be home more than a lot of young men that go off and start their careers.
So we feel very fortunate that Ryan comes home as often as he does.
I do miss him, he's my older brother and it's good to have him around sometimes.
I thought that this video game industry was going to be a phase.
And that it would go away. Now, I'm thinking maybe this was a good move.
He's obviously good at it, so why not go for what you're good at.
It's a comfortable place to be, but there's a lot of pressure, still.
There's a pressure to succeed, to be number one.
It's always on your shoulders and it's hard to forget, but on the
other hand, I'm surrounded by people that love games, and they're so cool and so talented.
I really embraced this opportunity that I had.
Despite the fact that there were hard times and certain sacrifices I had to make.
But, all in all, it's just been an incredible experience and one that I would never give up.
For me, it's been kind of three years in the making.
First we talked about doing a logo. And then, all of a sudden, we're talking about the opening movie.
Alex is the mastermind behind this studio.
The Logan guys, they have the experience, they have that creative eye.
They've made a big name for themselves, making really cutting edge commercials and visual effects.
I've worked in a lot a places before to realize I want to do things a different way.
I still believe that you can do large commissions and big projects
without turning into a corporate shop.
You can stay relaxed about it.
We want people to have a great time being here, working with us, trying to make things great.
What we're doing here is pretty revolutionary, I think, in video games.
People just kind of give us this look because nobody's ever attempted this before.
It's basically a parody on American television, but with a little bit
of a darker edge because it's still set in the MGS4 world.
This is basically like a cool way of giving the player an idea what the world of MGS4 is like.
The task was to come up with an interpretation.
Each individual show is meant to be a completely different piece of content that
some futuristic, non-existent Tν network would create.
On top of that, there's five different commercials for each PMC.
It's just kind of a massive undertaking.
You have to pretend to be 20 different people that came up with these ideas.
It's kind of like a schizophrenic exercise.
The first one I wrote was the cooking show.
We have the chef who's out of the ordinary.
He's not a friendly guy from the kitchen, but we have him cooking for the family.
He has a co-host named Rachel. She's taken aback by some of his gestures and the way he speaks.
This could be the first channel that comes up. So, when they look at this, we want that WTF moment.
But we also want them to be intrigued and want to keep watching.
We have been planning this movie sequence for a long time, you know, like one and a half years.
We're going to shoot the whole thing in six days. Only six days.
But you know, Team Logan is very, very talented so we trust them.
We were thinking of shooting on film, but because of the schedule, we decided to go with HD video.
RED seemed to be the way to go.
Now we've got these 4K resolution files, we're bypassing telecine,
we're able to control every part of the process.
There's a massive amount of clean-up work that needs to happen on green screen footage,
even live-action footage of a preying mantis. Plates, where we need to track it.
We need computer-generated elements that perfectly match
the perspective and the angle and the speed.
It's really beautiful, the way that this opening project has come to be.
It's been over a decade in the making.
It's Ken, our producer, and Alex, the lead over at Logan...
Being art school friends, always promising each other that they're going to work together
At some point in the future.
And here we are, many, many years later and we need an opening movie for Metal Gear Solid 4.
And, we wanted something cutting-edge and pop-culture. That's what Logan's made for us.
Watching Alex deliver the final build and having Ken there and watching them load the final
files into the game was really cool to see.
It's kind of nice to see that this friendship has lasted for so long
and they finally accomplished something that they promised to do such a long time ago.