Kojima - Earlier PS3 comments misunderstood

In an Edge interview posted in its entirety by Kotaku, MGS4 man Hideo Kojima has retracted some earlier comments about PS3 not being up to the job, saying the meaning of his words got lost in translation.

"It's become totally different," he said.

"This was in English, and here's where it gets strange. Japanese readers then translated that in Japanese and put it on their websites, writing things like 'Oh, the PS3 is dead.' Then that spread through the internet and now people are writing things like, 'Hideo Kojima is making MGS4 on the PS3.'

"This is no good... It's funny how others think, 'Did Hideo really say that?' then ask me, and my answer is obviously 'No' but then... I guess I am responsible for all of the articles..."

No, we don't understand him either. However, you can read what Kojima really meant about the the PS3 when he talks about flying cars in space at MACH speed through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Now I'm going to say what I really wanted to say, and this is what I told those 15 reporters:

Let's say this developer is making hardware, in this case a game, and that hardware is at the level of a car. And when looking at the specs, the developer claims the car is able to fly. Now there is no stopping when you say, "This is a car that can fly." When you claim that it can fly, the speculation grows from "oh so it can FLY?!!!" And the developer would set his goals higher. The specualtion is that if the car flies, then it should reach a MACH speed...but it doesnt stop there...it'd go beyond the specualtion of then "it should go into space!" with all the excitement around, and the developer would go deeply into making the car going into space... however, he'll come up to the public and say the car reaches the MACH speed, but it fails to go into the space. But he shouldn't give up, because for a car to even reach a mach speed and go into air is revolutionary. I wished to convey my thoughts like that, but I guess it didn't work very well.

Recently I've been thinking about not giving interviews. That's not my job. My job is making games... The next time I interview in America, I will just say "MGS4 is the best, the end." It's not cool for a Japanese to speak so blatantly, and I don't want to say that. But if I don't, things like this [above] can happen... If you look at MGS4, I think you'll understand... MGS4 isn't exactly my property, so I don't have a total control over it and sometimes I get confused with it. Some may be disappointed the way I say things, but I do release the game with confidence. In fact that what I have been doing, not just this PS3 game, but my previous PS2 titles. I always reached for the higher goal and I try to go for it... Things like this often happen with Japanese newspapers. Where they take only the choice quotes. They don't change what you say, but the meaning's different, and the meaning changes. I'm always careful while giving interviews. Even in my company, im learning a lot about media training, but I wanted to do more than just that and here i am with the interview, but if things like above keep happening, I won't do anymore interviews. I don't get paid for these interviews at all. [jokingly] I won't do them anymore! I've decided! I'll stop doing my podcast! Like that.