In the midst of the ongoing ruckus surrounding videogame violence, Metal Gear godfather Hideo Kojima has come out saying that it’s pretty much essential.

In an interview in Famitsu magazine, he says:

When you hit someone or inflict pain, faces get disfigured for example, and I want to make games that show that sort of thing.

If you don’t see the pain, you can’t understand what you’ve done, and you’ll pass through battles without taking responsibility for your actions. I don’t want to ignore that. I want players to think, even if it’s just a little, about what violence and war are.

It’s good to hear a heavyweight getting behind the industry for producing mature content, but it’s also clear to see that he means this with a caveat. Earlier in the interview he stated that he doesn’t think many games tackle violence head on.

He reinforces this point by adding: “I think there are fewer developers around today who think about making a good game.” Manhunt 2 and its ilk aren’t getting any love it seems.

As for Kojima’s vision; Metal Gear’s well established penchant for existential debate means we’re going to get a fair dose on the morals of war, but facial disfigurement? Is this some curious new IP brewing in his brain? We can’t wait.

More to the point, why is he being interviewed by Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond?

Read the interview here.

Tags: assassin, creed, developers, facial_disfigurement, good_game, jade_raymond, kojima, mature_content, metal_gear, violence

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