Hideo Kojima Explains Why He Doesn't Want To Make A Horror Game

One of the biggest hits on the PlayStation 4 in 2014 was the short demo for “P.T.,” which was revealed to be a preview for Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro’s now-canceled “Silent Hills.” The short demo showed that Kojima is capable of making a really scary horror game, something that unfortunately won’t be happening anytime soon.

In a recent interview with IGN, Kojima revealed that he has no plans of revisiting the horror genre. Amusingly, Kojima says that one of the reasons why is because he gets “scared very easily.” He also took the time to explain that creators who get scared easily are able to easily make something that’s scary for others.

“Actually, this is true of Alfred Hitchcock as well as Steven Spielberg. Because they scare easily, because I scare easily, it’s actually easy for us to make something that is scary, because we understand what is scary,” Kojima explained.

He also opened up on the process of how to effectively scare people by showing them something “that’s slightly out of the ordinary.” “Slightly off, but at first glance, they don’t know what it is about it that is unusual. When you do something like this, it confuses the mind, and that becomes unnerving for the person who sees it,” Kojima said.

The Kojima Productions founder also admitted that coming up with horror scenarios often give creators nightmares. “But while in that process, we’re constantly imagining, like, terrifying situations so it ends up giving me bad dreams,” Kojima said. “That’s the reason why I don’t want to make a horror game.”

Kojima is currently working on “Death Stranding,” an upcoming open-world action game that’s been shrouded with a lot of mystery. The game stars Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen.

Last week, the famed game designer gave an update on the development of “Death Stranding.” Kojima denied rumors that the upcoming game will be released for the PS5, and confirmed that it will indeed be a PS4 title.

Although Kojima still hasn’t given out a release date for “Death Stranding,” he says that the development team already has a firm release schedule, and when the end goal is, according to DualShockers. Speculations point to a 2018 release date.