Hideo Kojima, best known for his work on 1986’s Penguin Adventure (and, you know, Metal Gear and Death Stranding), recently took the stage at the Kojima Productions 10th Anniversary event, and had some curious things to say about his upcoming game OD. Namely, he wants to capture a ghost!

“For me, for OD, I want to go around all over the world where [there are] scary kind of places,” he said, “I want to scan a ghost for the first time and I want to get an award for that.”

Everyone laughed, because he was joking, right? Well, maybe. According to Kojima, the trailer up there already contains a snippet of a ghostly recording. Here’s what he had to say:

“You hear this crackling sound? That’s actually a sound that was recorded in our studio, which sometimes it creaks in the studio or something. Uh, maybe the ghost was there, but she’s no longer there, anymore…that’s why we went to the shrine together with Microsoft to make sure that we have a safe build of the game. And we’ll probably hire a…”

A what, Kojima? A what? Unfortunately, he veered off into technical jargon right after. What’s all this about a shrine, though? During an interview last year (around the 40:20 mark), Kojima spoke more about hauntings and game development.

“You know how before making horror movies or dramas, people go to a shrine for Oharai?” he said, “Well, this is a scary game, so we did the Oharai ceremony with the Microsoft team.” Oharai is a Shinto purification ritual. Apparently the clanging noise in the studio could be heard “once every hour,” so they were able to get some good recordings of it before exorcising those spirits. But was it enough?

“…we should visit a more powerful place, like Mount Osore. I’m thinking of doing Oharai again.”

As for the trailer for OD: Knock? It looks pretty okay. It’s planned to be an avant-garde episodic anthology game, with each episode featuring a different writer. Knock is Kojima’s episode.

Last Updated: Nov 26, 2025 Odd Corners Published: Sep 30, 2025