Jordan Peele Joins Hideo Kojima to Create an “Utterly Terrifying” Immersive Experience with Upcoming Video Game ‘OD’
Kojima and Peele promise an interactive experience like we’ve ever seen before.
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Partway through The Game Awards broadcast on December 7, 2023, viewers were treated to a teaser for an upcoming video game title OD. The first words seen on the screen were “A Hideo Kojima Game,” and that alone is cause for excitement. What followed was indescribably creepy. Take a look below:
The teaser for OD features well-known actors Sophia Lillis, Hunter Shafer, and Udo Kier, but the star power didn’t stop there. After Hideo Kojima himself came out to address the live audience, Jordan Peele walked onto the stage and was revealed as one of Kojima’s collaborators in bringing OD to life. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Kojima stated that Peele is just one of multiple creative partners involved in OD, though he wasn’t able to talk about any of the other unnamed “legends” at this time.
Hideo Kojima was intentionally vague about exactly what OD is going to be. Through his translator, Kojima said that OD is a game, but it is also a movie. It be “a new form of media,” and something that “no one has seen before.” Jordan Peele was visibly excited when he was speaking about the project, saying OD is “completely immersive” and “utterly terrifying.” Though that still doesn’t explain what OD is going to be, learning more about the game as it develops is part of the anticipation and fun.
A report from Variety gives a little more insight, saying that the game will “explore what it means to OD on fear.” Watching the teaser trailer, it appears as if we see this happening. As Lillis, Shafer, and Kier each recite the same line in succession, we see a shift in emotions that start calm and end in sheer terror. Whether these clips are actually part of the game or if they’re just a representation of what playing the game feels like is anyone’s guess at this point. But it is intriguing nonetheless.
OD is being developed by Kojima Productions in partnership with Xbox Game Studios. The announcement of the partnership happened back in June of 2022 when Kojima appeared in a short video on the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022. In the clip, Kojima talks about finally being able to develop the game he has always wanted to make. It will be a new game with a “never-before-seen concept” that no one has ever experienced before. The game he is referring to is, of course, OD.
Though OD sounds like it will be something completely unique, it isn’t the first time Kojima has mixed the worlds of video games and film. His games are littered with movie references and allusions going all the way back to the beginning of his career in the gaming industry. As he rose in the industry, his games increased in their cinematic sensibilities. By the 2010s, he even started collaborating with filmmakers, teaming with Guillermo del Toro for Silent Hills, a game that was ultimately cancelled (but not before releasing a legendarily spooky playable demo titled PT). After that, Kojima directed and designed the game Death Stranding which released in 2019 and stars Norman Reedus.
In 2019 it was reported that Kojima Productions would start making movies. Though that hasn’t happened yet as of this writing (update: an adaptation of Death Stranding is in the works from Kojima Productions and A24), everything said about OD sounds like it may bridge the gap between movies and games in a way we’ve yet to see. And with Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele involved, we can’t wait to find out exactly what that will look like.
There is no release date announced for OD yet, and there likely won’t be one for a while. Whenever more developments are announced, we’ll be sure to let you know.
