Microsoft reportedly has no plans to fire Hideo Kojima OD. The mysterious project is therefore expected to survive the latest wave of Xbox-wide cost-cutting, although it remains unclear whether OD is somewhere close to being released.
OD was originally announced during the December 2023 edition of The Game Awards. Its first teaser showed several characters becoming increasingly distressed, underscoring that the title was intended as a horror experience at its core. Subsequent patent applications by Kojima Productions pointed to OD which includes something called the Social Scream System, a multiplayer component of sorts. Kojima later indicated as much, though OD has received few updates over the years since its official reveal. Thus, recent reports of major restructuring and cost-cutting at Xbox have raised concerns among some fans about the fate of the project.
What OD's “Knock” can mean
Kojima Productions released a new trailer for its enigmatic horror game OD, which highlights a prominent “knocking” motif that likely has deeper meaning.
OD is reportedly still under development
Xbox problems are not OD's problem at the moment
According to a new report from IGN, a source familiar with Microsoft's plans indicated that OD is still in development at Kojima Productions and still published by Xbox Game Studios. The report casts the project as one of the titles still moving forward while Microsoft reevaluates parts of its broader game plan, suggesting that Kojima's horror-genre-shattering pitch for OD still seen as a worthwhile endeavor despite Xbox's shifting priorities.
The fact that OD reportedly not at risk of cancellation does little to clarify its current development status. Formally announced in 2023, the game was later said to have entered pre-production around 2021. Modern AAA development cycles average around five years, suggesting that Kojima's upcoming project could be approaching a reveal or release window starting in the summer of 2026. However, that presupposes work on the mysterious game co-written by Jordan Peele, which may not have progressed quickly in a Jordan Peele case. OD It was long speculated to have started as a Stadia pitch for an episodic horror game that Google rejected, and reworking the concept into a more conventional game that still uses cloud technology in some form could have been time-consuming.
ODThe use of cloud technology has been praised since the reveal, although Kojima Productions has yet to explain how it will work. The fact that the game reportedly requires cloud infrastructure that only a few companies can provide at scale could help protect it from being canceled as Xbox pursues broader cost-cutting efforts, which OD essentially serves as an advertisement for the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. Kojima himself is also one of the most recognizable names in the industry, with a level of recognition that few video game designers have achieved and one that is closer to the Hollywood directors he often collaborates with. From that point of view, cancel OD could have generated more negative publicity than scrapping a lower-profile project, which is another potential factor contributing to the support it continues to enjoy from Xbox.
Guess the games from the emojis.
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Guess the games from the emojis.
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Not all Xbox partners have fared as well as Kojima Productions during the ongoing restructuring. 007 First light developer IO Interactive recently announced layoffs after Xbox pulled funding from its original RPG, codenamed Project Fantasy. It remains unclear if the game will still be released, although IOI did not indicate that it had been cancelled. Xbox, for its part, has said its restructuring is not a cost-cutting effort in the broadest sense, but part of a shift toward focusing on fewer popular IPs and shifting resources away from other projects.
