On January 19th Mark Cerny joined twitter. Why is this so monumental? Well his very first tweet was this…
As far as first tweet’s go that is quite an impressive one that got people’s imagination running wild. Why were Hideo Kojima and Mark Cerny going to be spending 10 days together? Well the answer would come shortly after.
Kojima Productions producer Ken-Ichiro Imaizumi tweeted shortly after “Our adventure has begun! A high end technology tour with @cerny you don’t want to miss their tweets! #MarkCerny”
So there you go. Hideo Kojima would be accompanying Mark Cerny on a tech tour. Perhaps to get ides of what they want to use for the first Kojima Productions game.
As followers and forums were eating this up, Kojima couldn’t help put tease his followers.
And it wasn’t just Kojima teasing, but also his other traveling companion Imaizumi again tweeting and teasing.
The Silent Hills game from Del Torro and Kojima will never see the light of day, but that won’t stop them hurting us with these teasers.
The first day of the road trip officially started by checking out the motion capture technology used for The Last of Us and The Order 1886.
As well as checking out the motion capture tech, Kojima also dabbled with facial scans:
Next up Kojima visited with an old friend. JJ Abrahms at Bad Robot.
While this picture was taken on their current tour, it’s not the first time these 2 have met.
The funny thing about this is that some days later after this 2nd meeting of minds took place, news broke that Kojima is actually referenced in the new Star Wars.
And of course this again got people’s imagination flowing putting 2 and 2 together and believing that ***STAR WARS SPOILERS***
C3PO’s red arm is in fact a shout out to Venon Snake’s fake arm from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Next up the pair went and visited one of Sony’s first party developers Sucker Punch Studios.
The travelers headed over to another Sony first party developer next, Sony Bend. While there they were treated to a 276 page slide show presentation.
The flight path thus far going as San Diego -> Seattle -> Oregon -> Los Angeles
Next up was Foster City to Sony HQ:
While here Cerny and Kojima were treated to gifts and drinks with Sony big wig Shawn Layden:
After the wining and dining with Shawn at Sony HQ the traveling crew flew over to Europe. Stopping in London. While in London Kojima met up with Midge Ure who’s cover of David Bowie’s Man who sold the world featured in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Back to business and the pair went on to check in SCE London who are hard at work with VR for PlayStation VR.
Moving forward the tour stopped off at another Sony first party studio in Media Molecule to look at the creation tools that they use and play around with their unique upcoming PS4 title Dreams.
The travel path now looking incredibly impressive. Los Angeles > San Diego > Los Angeles > Seattle > Bend > San Francisco > Los Angeles > London > Guildford > London > ??
Media Molecule would be the end of the UK leg of the tour, next up the team flew over to Amsterdam to check out yet another Sony first party studio Guerilla Games. Dutch airlines KLM enjoyed the experience of having Kojima on board with them.
While they were there to checkout the tech behind the stunning looking Horizon: Zero Dawn, It looks like they had lots of fun at Guerilla too followed by a night out in Amsterdam.
Perhaps too much fun on the night out in Amsterdam as the twitter activity picked up.
The show must go one despite a heavy night the previous night, Kojima updated us with the travelling so far.
And onto their next and possibly final stop, Quantic Dreams. This one was a little surprising as QD aren’t actually a Sony first party studio, but have been very supportive of their PlayStation exclusives with Heavy Rain, Beyond 2 Souls and the upcoming Detroit.
While at QD, Kojima met up with an old friend that worked on Metal Gear Solid 4 back in the day. The pair looked thrilled to be reunited.
And as the tour was coming to a close, other studios within short flying distance reached out to Kojima to get him to visit.
And as the tour came to a close Kojima tweeted his feelings about this incredible experience:
“After this studio tour (my advanced technology journey) I felt this:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said that. (continue)”
“Creating games” using advanced technology, isn’t it like bringing “magic” to the real world? Doesn’t it make the “dream” of “magic” come true for people in the real world? Yet, it’s impossible to create “magic” just by using “technology.”
“The “environment” is essential to draw the ability of “human resources” to use “technology.” The most important thing is leading by tying “technology,” human resources” and “environment” together, the vision (dream) of the studio must be clear. After you have those, for the first time advanced technology becomes “magic.”
“Now the restart has been confirmed. We launch a new studio. We recruit Staff, get an office, build the organization, research the latest technology, take up the challenge to “create new magic.” It might sound like we’re starting from scratch.” (continue)
“However, There’s the support from people all over the world, friends who are sharing this dream, users that cheer for us. So it’s never a restart from zero. We will continue to create cutting edge games like we did for thirty years.”
It’s been brilliant following the pair on their twitters and seeing them enjoy getting their hands on Sony’s first party tech. Hopefully it’s inspiring Kojima for his first PS4 / PC title that’s been confirmed.
It’s also good to see Kojima having fun again after hearing and reading the baron stories of his time in Konami.
We can only look forward to seeing what both Cerny and Kojima have up their sleeves after this incredible tour of Sony.
Sources – Mark Cerny, Hideo Kojima, Sucker Punch, Sony, Guerilla Games, Bend, Quantic Dreams, Midge Ure, KLM, Crytek, Media Molecule, Sony London VR Twitter profiles.
– Murr
