Kojima Says No to MGS3 Remake and Yes to Knowing How to Kill You

Hideo Kojima isn’t planning to play the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. He also says he knows many ways to kill a person. That’s not a joke or metaphor—he just said it mid-interview, didn’t explain it, and carried on. In the same conversation, he took a few shots at the current state of big-budget game development, expressed his love for real-life military training, and doubled down on his belief that indies are the only ones really trying anything new these days. Oh, and he’s definitely not giving the baton to anyone else. If there’s going to be a next Kojima game, it’ll be because he made it himself.

During a recent interview with Ssense, the Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator was doing what he often does—talking freely and unpredictably. This time around, his comments hit everything from industry stagnation to gun assembly. When asked if he plans to check out Konami’s upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Kojima laughed and shut it down in one sentence.

“No, I won’t.”

That's all he said. And considering the game is a full remake of one of his most acclaimed works, it’s a pretty big statement. Snake Eater isn’t some forgotten PS2 relic. It’s one of the most influential stealth-action games ever made, and Delta is bringing it back with modern controls, updated visuals, and a full Unreal Engine 5 rebuild. It launches August 28, with a Deluxe Edition unlocking two days earlier. Konami is pitching it as faithful to the original in all the ways that count. But Kojima isn’t interested.

That’s not surprising given the backstory. Kojima and Konami split in 2015 under very public and messy circumstances. Since then, Kojima’s built his own studio, made Death Stranding, and has been working on its sequel. Meanwhile, Konami has stayed quiet for years before ramping up production on remakes like Silent Hill 2 and MGS Delta—neither of which Kojima is involved with in any way.

Instead, he’s focused on making games his way, which includes a lot of research. And not just the usual kind. He’s deep into field training, weapons disassembly, and close-quarters combat knowledge. When asked about how realistic modern military games are, Kojima said he finds most devs don’t know enough.

“People who are making military games, they probably don’t know how to dismantle a gun or shoot a gun, so that’s kind of sad.”

When the interviewer followed up by asking whether Kojima knows how, he didn’t miss a beat.

“Yes, because I’ve been doing this training as well,” he said. “And I learned so many ways to kill people as well.”

That’s the entire quote. No follow-up. No elaboration. Just Kojima, calmly dropping a line like that and moving on. It’s either extremely on-brand or deeply alarming, depending on how you read it. He’s done plenty of real-world research for his games before, so it’s likely this is more about authenticity than personal threats. Still, he said it. And nobody asked him to.

Aside from the surprise confession, Kojima also commented on the state of AAA games in general. He said watching Summer Game Fest left him feeling like everything looked the same. “Even the visuals and the systems are pretty much the same,” he explained. “And a lot of people enjoy this, I understand, but it is important to put something really new in there for the industry.”

It’s not just criticism, though—it’s a line Kojima himself walks. He’s pushing the limits of genre in Death Stranding 2, which, according to him, now has so much tactical espionage action that his team started worrying it was turning into another Metal Gear game. Even so, he made clear in earlier interviews that he’s not going to pass the franchise torch to anyone. His stance: “I will rather crush the baton.”

For those wondering what Metal Gear Solid Delta actually is, it’s a full remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, a game originally released in 2004. Konami’s new version is built in Unreal Engine 5 and sticks closely to the original story and structure, while modernizing controls. Think Snake’s movements from Metal Gear Solid 5 but wrapped around the classic Snake Eater campaign.

The game adds a few new features, like live injury visuals on Snake’s model and updated camo systems you can use without opening full menus. It also revives some of the weirder modes from earlier games, including Snake vs. Monkey on PlayStation and a new Bomberman crossover mode on Xbox. If the idea of eating snakes and fighting monkeys sounds familiar, it’s because that’s exactly what MGS3 was always about—stealth and survival with a very strange twist.

But none of that matters to Kojima. Whether it’s old content, former colleagues, or spiritual successors, he’s made it clear he’s focused on the future, and it doesn’t include Metal Gear.

Even with the remake hyped as a faithful and respectful recreation, his detachment from the project is total. The legacy, as far as Kojima is concerned, is already complete. If Konami wants to remix it for a new generation, that’s their business. But don’t expect Kojima to clap from the sidelines.

Instead, he's looking ahead to his own new IPs, continuing research that involves real-world training most developers would never touch, and carving out a legacy that has nothing to do with what came before. The man who invented CQC remembers the basics. He’s just not interested in watching someone else relearn them.