Jordan Vogt-Roberts has a very strong opinion on the debate of whether videogames are considered art or not.
In an interview with Glixel regarding theMetal Gear movie in production alongside Hideo Kojima, the director made his love for video games apparent, even stating that some of the influences from videogames spilt over into his recent film Kong: Skull Island.
Vogt-Robers, noted titles like Shadow of the Colossus and Zelda specifically make an impact on his position on the argument and that it’s terrible to see small indie developers who make niche titles fade due to lack of profits.
“I just want to see things that do something new. It’s really hard for me to just pick up a Call of Duty or something like that and just play it. I love Arkham Asylum, but it’s hard for me to pick up a sequel to something unless I feel like it’s really doing something new. Granted, I will always pick up a new Zelda and a new Metroid. I haven’t played Breath of the Wild yet because I am still getting my bearings and I need to get a Switch, but there are certain things that are so seminal in my life, and a lot of that old Nintendo stuff falls in that category – Zelda and Metroid in particular. I will always pick those up, but it’s hard for me to really give that much time to something if I don’t feel like it’s evolving the art form in some way.
From Ico to Shadow of the Colossus to The Last Guardian, the fact that games like that are able to be event games now, it’s amazing to me. I hope those games are able to make a profit and I’d like to think that those companies see the value in flagship entertainment that is pushing their artform forward, but for every success story, you hear a bunch of horror stories about an indie company that got shuttered before their game was released. The fact that it’s even a question anymore, when people even raise the idea of whether games are art, I just want to look at them and be like, “Fuck you. Fuck yourself for even questioning.”
So far these aren’t many details surrounding the Metal Gear film, but Vogt-Roberts has noted that he aims at doing justice to Kojima’s franchise.
