Reports have emerged that the Wachowskis, creators of The Matrix, pitched an idea to Konami in 1999 to make a Matrix video game that was subsequently rejected, but now, Hideo Kojima has come forward to admit that he wasn’t aware that the pitch even took place.
During a recent interview with Time Extension, former Konami VP of licensing, Christopher Bergstresser, recounted the meeting, claiming that Konami executive Kasumi Kitaue shot down the idea before it even reached Kojima.
“The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima,” recalled Bergstresser. “So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who still works with Kojima), and I were at the Konami HQ, and we got a call from the Wachowskis, who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima. So they did!”
“The two of them came in with their visual effects guy, and effectively they said to Kojima, ‘We really want you to do the Matrix game. Can you do that?’ Aki translated this into Japanese for Mr Kitaue, and Kitaue just looked at them and told them plainly, ‘No’. We did still get to enjoy the Matrix Japanese premiere and afterparty, though.”
Despite the report claiming that Kojima was present in the room when the idea was rejected, the now 62-year-old game director has now stated that he was never aware that such an offer had taken place, providing his own recollection of the events via a post on X/Twitter.
“I was surprised to see on social media that the Wachowskis had “offered me a Matrix game project!” back in 1999,” he wrote, “In all these 26 years, no one ever told me such a conversation had taken place. At the time, we were mutual fans and exchanged emails. The Matrix hadn’t been released in Japan yet, but I had already seen it in theatres in the U.S. and at a preview screening.”
“When the Wachowskis came to Japan for promotion, I believe I met them three times. In the morning, we had a Famitsu interview in Shinjuku — that time, Geof Darrow joined us for the talk session. In the afternoon, they were invited to the headquarters of Konami’s CS Division. Back then, I was Vice President of KCE JAPAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary. When I arrived at the headquarters, their meeting with Mr Kitaue, the head of the CS Division, had just ended.”
“I joined them afterwards, and we chatted for about an hour without an interpreter (Aki wasn’t even there). I think John Gaeta, the visual effects supervisor, was also present. That evening, I attended the premiere screening and party, where I also met Joel Silver. Even then, there was no mention of an offer,” he continued, “At that time, I was already extremely busy with MGS2 and probably couldn’t have accepted the offer right away. But if someone had told me, maybe there could’ve been a way to make it work.”
At the end of the day, these events happened over 20 years ago, so recollections are probably murky, so who knows what actually transpired. One thing that’s for sure is that the world was ultimately denied a Kojima-made Matrix game, which, considering how his expertise for oddball game mechanics and storytelling would fit so perfectly in the sci-fi universe, is truly a shame.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Joey Leong
