Tonight, as part of the Kojima Productions 10th Anniversary livestream, called Beyond the Strand, we got a new update on the studio’s peculiar work-in-progress, OD.
The title, which Kojima has previously referred to as “a game and at the same time a movie and at the same time a new form of media”, got a new trailer during the livestream, as the developer was joined by Phil Spencer.
“At Xbox, we empower creators to push boundaries, and that’s exactly the game that OD is,” said Xbox CEO Phil Spencer when he turned up on stage. Kojima added that he wanted to ‘go over the system’ of films and games, before showing some footage of OD running on the Unreal Engine (assumedly Unreal Engine 5). This is most likely because the Xbox-backed title isn’t allowed to use Guerilla’s Decima engine, which is owned by Sony.
You can see the latest trailer here as part of the livestream below. “It’s very scary,” warns Kojima. I do have to say, the motion capture is astounding, if nothing else. The game gets a new tagline: ‘For all players and screamers’.
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“We have one goal in mind: to bring Kojima’s vision to life for all players everywhere,” wraps up Phil Spencer.
The game has a new subtitle: Knock, because Kojima wants to create the fear of the ‘knock’ – “I am afraid of the ‘knock’ sound, so I wanted to make that very frightening,” says Kojima. Kojima cryptically notes that Jordan Peele is working on another part of the OD experience, so that subtitle, Knock, may refer to a specific episode Kojima is working on himself – it’s currently unclear.
Kojima also joked that he ‘wants to win an award’ for being the first person to motion-capture a ghost, and that the scariest experience of all was standing on-stage next to Phil Spencer. Relatable.
So, what else do we know about OD?
The game first surfaced via rumours in 2022, when word online suggested Kojima was working on a horror title called Overdose. This turned out to be true, and in 2023, we got a 10-minute blowout on the game that didn’t, really, reveal anything at all.
At least we got a trailer featuring Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier – all reciting the same eerie rhyme, and each with a different emotional emphasis, as the camera held steady on their faces. It ended with a door slowly creaking open, as seen reflected in Lillis’ eyes, and a terrified scream. Intriguing.