Hideo Kojima Credits Previous Xbox Head Phil Spencer For Believing In OD When Other Publishers Didn’t

It looks like gamers will have to thank Phil Spencer for one last thing after all.

In 2023, Kojima Productions and Xbox announced OD, an upcoming horror game to be published under Xbox Game Studios. Given Kojima’s long association with PlayStation, many fans wondered why he switched publishers.

A new Entertainment Weekly feature on Xbox revealed this information:

“I pitched to many people, to the big companies, and also to the up-and-coming companies. All of them said the same thing,” Kojima recalls. “They said that I’m crazy, and that they really don’t understand the concept — that they will not be able to do it.”

It was Phil Spencer, the former Xbox CEO and friend of the creator, who understood what he was trying to achieve.

Kojima has spoken previously about how he isn’t sure if OD will even work, and that may be the reason why other companies turned Kojima down.

It’s certainly interesting why PlayStation said no to this given what they greenlit. While Xbox’s own fans have questioned Phil’s decisions, we think his reputation will turn out much better than everyone assumes.