Will the gaming industry have legends like Kojima and Miyamoto in the future?

Kojima and Miyamoto are pioneers of their industry. They set out to make great games. They made games with a vision and were successful with their ideas for what a game should be and can be. When I think of today's industry, I think of business suits running the show, and a lot less freedom. What say you, SW? Will the gaming industry have legends like Kojima and Miyamoto in the future?

Not like Miyamoto imo, Mario happens only once.

But I think that as gamers get olders game creators will be even more mainstream and famous. Maybe one day gaming will have someone as famous as say Steven Spielberg.

The indie scene produces exceptional shit every couple of months more or less.

When it comes to "AAA" gaming. Well, barely fucking buy them any more. Take from that what you will.

Of course; we have had better developers come and go, and we will have better developers come and go.

Kojima and Miyamoto have, objectively, been surpassed time and time again. But the fact is there are a lot of great games and we don't have time to obsess over every developer.

They get credit for being "pioneers" as you say, but I think it is important to keep things in context. I have great respect for the people that create something original, but I have even greater respect for people that perfect that thing.

...and now I put up my flameshield and wait for the incoming shitstorm.

First off, I do not consider consider Kojima a legend. He is mainly known for a single game franchise that has been hit and miss in quality.

Will there be more legends? Unlikely, as the industry is already well established, there is a lot of competition with many games being similar, and most importantly... game development is a very collaborative effort where it is more about having a good team. So, studios that have good teams that stick together for multiple projects tend to get more recognition than individuals within those studios.

Nowadays, I don't think the world is as simple or convenient as it once was to give guys like Miyamoto and Kojima that legend status.

I think there will be many strong figures, but hitting that legendary status is more difficult to achieve. Not unobtainable, but not easy either.

My mantra has always been: "great art comes from the past, present and future." I have no doubt in my mind that the next pioneer will come around in gaming. The margin of opportunity may be more narrow these days, but that hopefully just gives our future legend(s) direction and focus.

I think the more established the industry is, the more nil the chance of "legends" and "founding father figures". But I'm sure there will always be "celebrity" developers - you can have an established industry and still have folks who are more innovative, disruptive, or simply crowd-pleasing (deserved or not) who will earn name recognition

Isn't practically every MG title he's been involved with universally praised?

Not saying they are perfect or he's impeccable, but calling them "hit and miss" seems like a massive stretch.

Yeah I think that there will be but it’s always a more difficult thing to achieve in a more mature industry. Completely fresh ideas come along with less frequency but they’ll still pop up every now and then.

Praised by Kojima fanboys who are incapable of rational thinking.

To me, it's all about leaving your legacy behind is more satisfying then being a legend you are now. The title Legend isn't something to be admire but leaving the legacy to the next generation is far more important so the gaming industry can learn that person why his/her game is so legendary.

Kojima isn't a legend, but his legacy will live on for generation.

I think devs these days are less likely to let one person take the credit for the whole game.

Of course man. That's like asking will there be more legendary authors or directors lol

This is a question better suited for when mankind is on the brink of extinction due to the AGI we're creating that may wipe us out xD

I would argue that Miyamoto and Kojima both pioneered and perfected their respective crafts...

Miyamoto:

• Pioneered 2D platformer with Donkey Kong and perfected it with Super Mario Bros 3.
• Pioneered 3D platformer with Mario 64 and perfected it with Mario Galaxy.
• Pioneered 2D action-adventure with Zelda and perfected it with A Link to the Past.
• Pioneered and perfected 3D action-adventure with Ocarina of Time.

Kojima:

• Pioneered 2D stealth-action with Metal Gear and perfected it with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
• Pioneered 3D stealth-action with Metal Gear Solid and perfected it with The Phantom Pain.
• Pioneered cinematic direction with Snatcher and perfected it with Snake Eater.
• Pioneered fourth-wall breaking with Metal Gear and perfected it with Sons of Liberty.

Not in the AAA scene. AAA games are pretty much copy and paste these days. There is little originality to games unless you go to the indie scene.

@SolidGame_basic: hope not. Kojima isn’t a legend 😅

Yea, whether you like them or not, they are considered legends in the industry.

No. Games are too big, take too long to make, and involve too many people. Game directors are important, and deserve a lot of credit when a project turns out well, but it's hard to become a legend when you make one game every five - eight years.

If it does happen, it will have to be some small team indie dev. Maybe that guy who made Undertale will become a legend someday.

Calling Kojima a legend and even worse placing him alongside Miyamoto.

We have been over it many times. He neither pioneered nor perfected those things. He just gets wrongly credited for it and being a shameless person he is he never corrects or even humbly acknowledge other people who actually did.

I'd say Cinemaware pioneered it, and consistently pushed and evolved it. So yea, most of the stuff there agree with, not that. And Snake Eater more subjective. If think it's the best shit since slice bread, great. But even older stuff like Homeworld I would argue is better at the "movie" aspect than Kojima.

Related -

@Sushiglutton: I don't think even the movie industry would ever get another Steven Spielberg again, let alone the game industry. Much like AAA games, blockbuster movies now sell based on franchises, not directors.

The only filmmaker nowadays who can guarantee a blockbuster with his name is Christopher Nolan. And the only game designer who can do that is Hideo Kojima... let's face it, a game like Death Stranding could never sell anywhere close to 5M without the Kojima name.

@pc_rocks: I'm not going to even bother entertaining your arguments (I already know how much you hate Kojima). So no point trying to argue with me over this.

Me neither but still wanted to correct you since you like pushing this false narrative while being proven wrong time and time again.

Miyasaki is better than both.

Kojima is overrated

@uninspiredcup: That's why I said "cinematic direction" rather than cinematic presentation. Laserdisc arcade games already had cinematics in the early '80s. What Snatcher did is combine cinematic presentation with a well-written script, in a way that feels like watching a good movie (like Blade Runner meets Akira meets City Hunter).

Fixed.

You can change my quotes all you want but the fact remains you were proven wrong and Kojima as a hack not once but multiple times. I mean I don't even have to do anything you yourself in this very thread has admitted that DS only sold because of Kojima's name, and wouldn't have been possible if others have done it.

A popular myth is still a myth no matter how many times it is repeated or by whom. Kojima haven''t done anything that he's routinely being credited for.

Console gamers are always looking for something to worship or hype.😂

Will Hideo Kojima ever make an IP as good as Metal Gear Solid again? That's my question.

Lmao, so true. That's chromebook_rocks for ya.

@pc_rocks: What a strange case. You're basically lying to yourself for some reason. It's like you don't want to admit that MGS is considered one of best franchises of all time, if not the best. It doesn't really matter how many times you repeat this BS, reality doesn't just adjust to your insecurities.

They already do, his name is Todd Howard.

NA the days of legends is over now its all about teams or whatever

Legends will be on an indie level. Studios have been killing their reputations for decades.

Spell check.

Eh, Miyamoto was out of the Mario directors chair long before SMG2. Pretty sure SM64 was the last Mario game on which he served in more than a producer capacity.

Same with A Link to the Past, Producer role. Though he did get back on design for OoT.

And yeah, Kojima was a pioneer for both 2d and 3d stealth games, but definitely wasn't first on either. Same for cinematic direction and fourth wall breaking (latter being a lulz thing to credit anyways lol).

Obviously both these guys have earned their status multiple times over. Made plenty of great games and have influenced game design to such a degree that the industry wouldn't look the same without them. Just no need to overstate their achievements, their actual contributions are more than enough.

That's a typo. I meant Galaxy 1. Miyamoto came up with the game design concept for SMG.

Producer role still counts.

Pioneer: "a person who is one of the first people to do something" (Cambridge).

Nothing was overstated.

@BassMan: Not even close to being hit and miss. They have all been hits and bigger hits.

Every single Kojima directed Metal Gear would go into the top 50 greatest games of all time. And there's like 7 of them.

Kojima is the god of gaming, we'll never get another Kojima again.

But I am surprised no one mentioned Hidetaka Miyazaki, he is quite possibly the best game director of the decade. Elden Ring coming out soon and I have feel it will be his Magnum Opus.

by 2030, we'll probably refer to the "big 3" of gaming as Hideo Kojima, Shiggy Miyamoto and Hidetaka Miyazaki.

@valgaav_219: Will a book holier than the bible be written? a painting more revered than the Mona Lisa? of course not.

A better question would be... will any developer ever make an IP as good as Metal Gear? Probably not.

@Mozelleple112:

These days Kojima is only a legend in his own mind.

Either way others will step up and push forward to evolve the gaming space.

@ConanTheStoner: Miyamoto definitely has the influence as a legend, though.

I've heard more than enough stories from young and aspiring dev's when they have their brief interactions with Miyamoto that end up shaping younger dev's in ways they never bargained for.

Take a DK game by Retro Studios. I recall a younger talent there who told a story of his brief Miyamoto interaction. "Oh I think DK should use his tongue to pick up items in the world, the game will gain more personality relevant to DK."- Miyamoto

And the young dev said up until that point he only looked at the production from a mechanical design standpoint but then Miyamoto gave clarity on how to give personality to the game.

I think while he's not fully directing anymore, you can tell his legend status just from instances like that, when developers that have those little interactions with him. How inspiring the young dev's to do their best and most inspired work through subtlety.

Miyamoto does these things, and he's actually earned that status, and you can tell when you collect these types of stories of younger gens in the industry and how their Miyamoto stories and interactions changed the ways they approach development.

@jaydan:

Yeah sure. I don't need convincing lol. Think my post makes it very clear, I'm not at all disputing their status.

I can even add to your anecdotes here. While my career path ultimately took many turns I can say with absolutely certainty that I never would have started along this path if not for these two figures. Their work influenced and motivated me a great deal.

It also goes well beyond aspiring devs, these guys influenced other giants. In Miyamotos case, he was a huge influence on Kojima haha.

My only issue with Jags post was undue credit and stretching truths. Their actual contributions and influence are more than enough. No need to pad that shit out and it's a disservice to those who should be credited.

@ConanTheStoner: Oh to clarify: I wasn't disputing your post, I was just building off of it with a couple of my own sentiments from what I've observed in Miyamoto's influence.

The gaming industry has become so big and so corporate that I think the days of individuals like Shigeru Miyamoto and Sid Meier having a wide reaching influence are behind us. Even consumers today tend to think of games in terms of the studios behind them rather than any one individual.

That coment screams elitism at its finest. Who exactly do you consider a legend so that I can say you arent rational without further context?

Hate it or not, Kojima did more in a mere 30 min demo than most fully fledged horror games at the time. P.T. a 30 minute demo served as inspiration for most modern horror games such as Visage, Phasmophobia, modern RE games that first inspired Silent Hill, etc, etc...

Hate it or like it Death Stranding is a unique game that many people enjoyed for what it was, even with its flaws.

So no, Kojima isnt only known for a "hit and miss" franchise

@jaydan: Ah gotcha.

Should have had my coffee first. 😂

Yeah definitely on the same page, especially with Miyamoto. Hard to imagine the industry without him.