“These games had their own worlds and stories. I felt a certain authorial quality in them.”
Kojima wanted to make films since middle school, but the Japanese film industry was very closed and no one would finance a movie. Video games, by contrast, drew him because they had their own worlds and stories, he felt a certain authorial quality in them, and they sold like crazy. In 1986 he joined Konami’s MSX home computer division — partly because he was living in Hyogo prefecture at the time — and his first credited role was as assistant director on Penguin Adventure (1986). He said he chose Konami not for its games but because it was listed on the stock exchange, the only games company with that status at the time (not even Nintendo), and he thought working for such a company might help people view his vocation more positively. All of his friends and lecturers begged him to reconsider; only his mother told him he could do whatever he wanted.
“Ever since middle school… I had wanted to make movies”; “The film industry in Japan is very closed off, and no one will give you money to finance a movie”; “These games had their own worlds and stories. I felt a certain authorial quality in them”; “And they sold like crazy too”; “partly because I was living in Hyogo prefecture at the time, but I thought I'd check out Konami”.