Hideo Kojima ‘really sad’ about PlayStation killing discs, ‘frightened’ for future of ownership

Exactly. The only reason physical media has seemed like "owning" is because the mechanism to actually enforce their license has not been feasible.

You know how often movies or shows flip off on streaming services? That's the future of games if the laws don't change

I don't disagree with you but I also have to assume there are contracts / stipulations in place that prevent a publisher from doing this after sony/microslop/Nintendo agree to sell digital / physical copies if your game.

But I play games to enjoy the story, the art of game making is about telling a story in an interactive way.

The same Koijima thar was doing a game for Stadia?

Everyone is a they. It’s been a singular third person pronoun since the 1300s.

the right of first sale in the digital space just need to be created to fix this mess

That sounds nice at first, but if you think about it, the logical conclusion is that: rather than an artist making a sale per person who wants to experience their work, they would make sales proportional to the maximum number of simultaneous viewers. With digital ownership, it would be trivial to instantly transfer ownership, so the moment someone is done playing a game or watching a movie, they'll sell it instantly to someone else.

The only content that could benefit in such an economy is low production value slop that seeks to go instantly viral and issue licenses while there's still demand. Then by the time it dies down they're on to their next slop hit. That and live-service titles that try to keep people holding their licenses. Short single-player experiences, and games from small creators who rely on passive income from a few new people finding their game over time would sell a few copies at first, and then the licenses out there would just always undercut the purchase of any new license.

Also the exchanges would make a bunch of money by taking a cut of each sale. Which is arguably better than just Sony or Valve taking their cut.

I don't like it either, but we can't act like right of first sale for digital licenses would solve all problems and not create any new ones.

He pitched it, it was approved, he started working on it.

Then he received pressure to make it multiplayer (presumably to add microtransactions). He refused, so the game was canceled.

Yes, that Kojima. The same Kojima who never sold you a microtransaction, weapon skin, season pass, or even a paid DLC. The same Kojima who never compromised his artistic vision for a payday, the same Kojima who never bowed to studio pressure to make his game "more accessible" or "more marketable". The very same Kojima who had to be forcefully removed from his own studio before he'd allow Konami to have a say in his creative process; yes, him. That's the Kojima you're referring to.

Kojima originally wanted to be a filmmaker. When he couldn't break into the industry, he switched over to making video games.

As someone who loves Kojima games and has since MGS1, not wanting multiple hour-long cut scenes in an action game is a perfectly reasonable preference. Even diehard Kojima fans acknowledge he's long-winded with his storytelling and his pacing is glacial; it's practically part of his style at this point.

The same Kojima who did not make a Stadia game.

So it's a taste issue.

It was, this guy is just inventing reasons to be mad at the wrong person.

I think skipping cutscenes solves the problem of not liking cutscenes, yes.

I do like Kojima’s cutscenes so I don’t skip them. They’re a part of the experience.

I mean, yeah
Are you saying Konami and Sony are the reason his games are good?

The shorter version I’ve used to describe this concern is: Imagine game resale could happen through a script kiddy’s Python program. Rather than individuals arranging sales over chat, anticipate that most sales would be arranged by online sites that are copying the model of GameStop, and twice as scummy as CSGO skin gamblers.

You sell your copy of a game you bought for $50, down to $20. It’s bought instantly by an AI algorithm, and then relisted for $34.99. Then that one’s bought instantly to resell for $39.98.