Hideo Kojima's Overdose game: Release date speculation & latest news
A small dose of Hideo Kojima's upcoming horror game.
During The Game Awards 2023, Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele (Nope, Get Out) took to the stage to reveal Kojima Production’s Overdose game - so we’ll be trying our dab hand at some release date speculation, as well as going over all the latest news.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Overdose, as the mysterious project was leaked in 2022 by an unnamed man with a flagrant disregard for clothing, as covered by GamesRadar.
In 2022, Hideo Kojima announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase that Kojima Productions and Xbox would be collaborating together to create a "new game, one that no one has ever experienced or seen before".
The teaser shown at TGA 2023 was our first official glimpse of what this might look like, but in typical Kojima fashion, we’ve been left with more questions than answers. Questions that we will try to answer for you below, so read on!
When is Hideo Kojima’s Overdose game release date? Our speculation
Hideo Kojima’s Overdose is likely some years away, but given it has been teased and leaked for over a year now, we would estimate that we might see the game in four years' time, for a 2027-2028 release window.
Metal Gear Solid 5 was first cryptically revealed in 2012 as The Phantom Pain, three years before the game launched in 2015.
Given that games are taking longer than ever to develop, and the fact that Kojima Productions are using Unreal Engine 5 as opposed to the Decima engine, we’ve tacked on another year to err on the side of caution.
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Can I pre-order Hideo Kojima’s Overdose game?
No, you cannot currently pre-order Hideo Kojima’s Overdose game.
As we’ve alluded to, it’s some years away, and Death Stranding 2 will be coming out first.
If you are desperate for some Kojima weirdness, then you can buy the Death Stranding Director's Cut for PC from CDkeys for £10.59 or on PS5 from Amazon for £23.88.
Alternatively, you can revisit the past and pick up the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 on the following platforms:
- MGS Master Collection Vol 1 for PS5 for £47.49 from Amazon
- MGS Master Collection Vol 1 for Xbox Series X/S for £44.95 from Amazon
- MGS Master Collection Vol 1 for Nintendo Switch for £39.95 from Amazon
- MGS Master Collection Vol 1 for PC for £32.99 from CDKeys
Which consoles and platforms can play Hideo Kojima’s Overdose game?
Hideo Kojima’s Overdose will be available for Xbox Series X/S and PC, and possibly mobile devices via Xbox Cloud Gaming.
This proved to be a huge shock for longtime fans of Kojima, as he has staunchly been part of the PlayStation family for many decades.
Only Metal Gear Solid 5 saw a simultaneous release across Sony and Microsoft machines, but since Kojima’s split from Konami, his games have come to more platforms, with Death Stranding even coming to iPhones and iPads.
There’s currently no word yet around if we will see a PlayStation 5 release, as the game is part of a development partnership with Microsoft. The bad blood between the two companies owing to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard may last for years, too.
Using "Microsoft’s cutting edge cloud technology", the game could potentially be playable on mobile devices, as well.
Hideo Kojima’s Overdose gameplay and story details
Very little is known about the project, but what we do know is that Kojima is "creating a very unique, immersive and totally new style of game – or rather, a new form of media". So far, so enigmatic - as per.
The end of the teaser trailer says that Overdose is "for all the players and screamers". This, in conjunction with prior leaks, confirms that Overdose will be a horror game.
This perhaps isn’t surprising, as Kojima and Jordan Peele walked out of a door very reminiscent from the one players walked through in PT, the Playable Teaser for the cancelled Silent Hills that Kojima and Guillermo del Toro were attached to.
Another nod to Silent Hill was a series of letters spelling A-T-A-M-I appearing in actor Udo Kier’s mouth, which was discovered by Redditor u/GlazicBlr on the Silent Hill subreddit and spotted by Polygon.
GlzicBlr explains that "Atami" is a city in Japan in the Shizuoka Prefecture. Shizuoka Prefecture in Japanese is "静岡", with "静" meaning quiet or silent and "岡" translating to hill.
Since Silent Hill had been mentioned in an extremely adjacent way, we doubt the project is linked, and is more likely a reference to Kojima’s prior work with the franchise.
The jury is out on what it will actually play like, however, as Kojima only said that Overdose will be "blurring the boundaries of gaming and film", but affirms that Overdose "is a game, don't get me wrong", then messes with our heads further by saying "at the same time, it's a movie; and at the same time, it's a new form of media".
Perhaps this is why Peele has been brought on board for the project, as well as actors Sophia Lillis (I Am Not Okay With This), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and Udo Kier (Hunters, Swan Song).
Is there a Hideo Kojima’s Overdose game trailer?
There certainly is a trailer for Hideo Kojima’s Overdose, and you can check it out just below.
Not much can be gleaned from the cryptic teaser other than the actors involved, the incredible rendering courtesy of Unreal Engine 5 and Metahuman and that it is definitely going to be an esoteric Kojima game.
As we covered above, the letters A-T-A-M-I appear in Kier’s mouth for a single frame at a time as he speaks.
Other than that, the trailer overall gives the impression that they are just screen tests for motion-captured performances, but given Kojima’s fondness for demolishing the fourth wall, it’s entirely possible that the meaning behind the teaser will be revealed some years down the line.
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Authors
Cole Luke is a freelance journalist and video producer who contributes to RadioTimes.com's Gaming section. He also has bylines for Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, Network N and more.