Konami vs. Kojima: The Matrix Game That Never Was
Picture a 1999 Matrix game led by Hideo Kojima — now picture Konami shutting it down with a flat no. Former Konami licensing VP Christopher Bergstresser tells Time Extension how the Wachowskis’ dream collaboration died before it even began.
Here is a premium what-could-have-been: back in 1999, the Wachowskis tried to get Hideo Kojima to make a Matrix video game. Konami shot it down on the spot. Yes, 26 years later, you are absolutely allowed to feel a little robbed.
The pitch that lasted about a minute
This nugget comes from a new account shared with Time Extension by Christopher Bergstresser, who was then Konami Digital Entertainment's VP of licensing. On August 25, 1999, the Wachowskis walked into Konami headquarters with concept artist Geoff Darrow to pitch their game idea directly to the Metal Gear guy himself.
According to Bergstresser, the conversation went something like this, with translator Aki facilitating and Konami exec Kazumi Kitaue in the room:
'We really want you to do the Matrix game. Can you do that?'
Kitaue heard the ask and replied, simply: 'No.'
Brutal, but not totally irrational. Kojima and his team were already deep in pre-production on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Pulling talent off that to spin up a massive Matrix project could have wrecked the schedule. Sensible call on paper. Still stings.
What we missed (and what we got)
Time Extension also spoke to a former Konami staffer who asked to stay anonymous. Their read: Kojima showed strong interest after meeting the Wachowskis, and several team members were immensely disappointed when Kitaue nixed it immediately.
And you can see why people are spiraling over the lost potential. Kojima is the guy who helped define stealth gameplay and loves threading big, heady ideas through his stories. The Matrix is literally about simulated reality and perception. That pairing in the early 2000s could have been wild.
Instead, Warner Bros. tapped Shiny Entertainment. We got Enter the Matrix in 2003 and The Matrix: Path of Neo in 2005. Both titles sold, both reviewed middling. Serviceable tie-ins that did their job without changing the form. A Kojima-led take would have been a very different beast, for better or for worse.
Counterpoint: maybe no one needed a four-hour codec about the Oracle
Not everyone is mourning. Some fans argue Konami accidentally protected both brands by keeping them separate. The Matrix works because it lets you put the world together visually and strategically doles out answers. Kojima, bless him, loves a monologue. Metal Gear Solid 2 literally ends with an extended conversation about postmodernism and information control that goes on forever. Would that style have deepened The Matrix or killed its mystique? Fair question.
The road we actually took
- Aug 25, 1999: The Wachowskis and Geoff Darrow pitch a Matrix game to Hideo Kojima at Konami HQ; Kazumi Kitaue says no immediately (via Christopher Bergstresser).
- 2001: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty launches, one of the medium's most ambitious sequels.
- 2003: Enter the Matrix arrives from Shiny Entertainment; big sales, mixed reviews.
- 2004: Metal Gear Solid 3 releases and becomes many fans' favorite entry.
- 2005: The Matrix: Path of Neo lands, again from Shiny; commercially fine, critically uneven.
So... did we dodge a bullet or miss the movie/game crossover of the decade?
Learning about buried stories like this decades later hits different. You cannot be mad about the thing you never knew existed until someone tells you it almost did. And yeah, if Kojima had taken The Matrix gig, it might have delayed or reshaped MGS2 and MGS3. Alternate timelines are tricky like that.
Would you trade the Metal Gear sequels we got for a Kojima-directed Matrix game we never did? Or did Konami make the right call for the wrong reasons? Tell me where you land.