Looking back at Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 15 years later, the lauded Japanese creator has determined that the dystopian battlefield of the future represented in the the game has become a reality.
Hideo Kojima's video games have always been more than entertainment; they're about making socio-political statements on the way we live. Just look at Death Stranding's take on connections, for example.
Taking to Twitter, Kojima ruminates on the prescient concepts MGS4 explored and how they have, unfortunately, come to pass.
"MGS4 depicts the next generation of proxy wars and war economies waged by unmanned weapons and PMCs" Kojima says. "A future where parties do not fight, but are represented by drones, proxy soldiers and corporations."
Of course, you don't have to look far to see how this has come true. The Western military-industrial complex is stronger than ever, and unmanned drones and PMCs are being utilised to a significant extent in the Ukraine conflict.
"MGS2 was a wake-up call to the digital society, but MGS4 is about the digitalization of the battlefield. Drones, SOPs, personal identification of weapons, weapon laundering ... It is no longer science fiction," Kojima continues.
Despite MGS4 often being the most overlooked mainline entry in the series, it deals with some of the most important topics of our time. And it's hard to argue against the vision of the future Kojima put forward 15 years ago because he's been proved correct, on the whole.