“Hideo, what you're making is already a movie. Keep going as you are.”
Around 2020, while ill and considering leaving game development, Kojima told Guillermo del Toro about his crisis; del Toro replied that what he was making was already a movie and to keep going as he was, and Kojima says those words saved him.
“Then for episode 1, I'll direct the opening and you'll direct the rest of the story. For episode 2, you'll direct the opening. And I was like, what kind of nonsense is this?”
“I want to die making something.”
“I thought that I could never recover. I felt like I might not ever be able to create a game again.”
“Making a game is very similar to making a movie. It would be ideal if I could spend two years on a game and then the next two on a movie.”
“I create films and art within the medium of games. This is not a conscious choice, it is simply an inevitable result.”