Hideo Kojima says MGS2 was never about AI ‘but rather a future I didn’t desire’ of data gaining a will of its own and ‘unfortunately we’re heading there’

Hideo Kojima has chosen to cap-off 2025 by doing an interview with Wired, as part of the publication’s Tech Support series: where the great and the good answer quickfire questions submitted by the public. Much of it is stuff that any seasoned Kojima-liker will be familiar with, such as praising 2001: A Space Odyssey to the heavens, though it is nice to see his love for the original Super Mario Bros. remains so pure.

One question put to Kojima (timestamp) relates to Metal Gear Solid 2, saying that AI control in the world is “becoming a reality” and asking whether Kojima predicted this era. To sum up in a sentence, and obviously spoilers ahead, MGS2 takes a very weird turn in its second half, with ‘reality’ collapsing around the protagonist Raiden as the player sits through a series of monologues about digital control, junk data, and our inability to parse the bewildering amounts of information created by the modern world. And that’s simplifying things.