After Tom Henderson of tryhardguides.com published an article about the existence of a new Hideo Kojima game in development entitled Overdose, he says that Kojima Productions contacted him and asked him to remove it (in through Kotaku). Henderson declined. In a conversation with Kotaku, Henderson said the request came with an offer to work with him when they could share more, presumably once the game is ready to be officially announced.
Henderson’s report continues to highlight details of the leaked images he received of the game that apparently include Death Stranding actress Margaret Qualley. Henderson describes Qualley, who played his mother with glasses in Death Stranding, running down a dark hallway with a flashlight. There is a scare, then the screen is cropped to the text that says “GAMEOVER”. Henderson later tweeted that his interaction with Kojima Productions was not antagonistic and that they were “very understanding all things considered.” The company has not yet issued a formal statement in this regard.
The report is temporarily disabled as I added a small update, but it needs to be approved (the beauty of writing at 6am).
The update only reads “Update: Kojima Productions has since requested that the posting of this report, which we rejected, be removed.” in the report.
– Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) June 8, 2022
With this alleged leak, this is the second time a set of Hideo Kojima has been revealed before its time. In May, Norman Reedus, the protagonist of Death Stranding, appeared to confirm the existence of his sequel in an interview with Leo magazine.
“It takes a lot of work,” Reedus said of Death Stranding. “And then the game came out, and he just won all those awards, and it was a huge thing, so we just started the second half.”
Both leaks are randomly timed, as Kojima’s best friend Geoff Keighley is about to kick off his not-so-full E3 Summer Game Fest event, which runs June 9-12. Kojima is not expected to attend the event, and Keighley himself has urged fans to “manage their expectations” in the face of big surprise revelations. Again, with the peculiarity of Kojima, it can never be said.