“I will not retire. I will continue to create games as long as I live.”
Upon receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MTV Game Awards in 2008, Kojima said he would not retire and that he would continue to create games as long as he lived.
“People saying things like, I think Kojima has about three more games left in him. And I'm like, no, don't say that.”
“I thought that I could never recover. I felt like I might not ever be able to create a game again.”
“I always want to be in a creative position, where I can concentrate and grow as a creator. I feel if I don't do that, I might as well not be in the industry.”
“Personally, though, I would like to do smaller projects, but when I think of the time I have left living on this earth, I would rather spend that on bigger things!”
In 2026 Kojima was scheduled to give a talk at the Game Developers Conference about his fateful decision a decade ago to go independent after a messy breakup with Konami, but he withdrew without offering an explanation; Kojima Productions announced he would not attend and said that some members of the studio would still present at the event.