Hideo Kojima and the Wachowskis were interested in working together on a game based on The Matrix, but Konami refused, according to a new report.
According to a report from Time Extension, following the release of The Matrix in US cinemas back in early 1999, Hideo Kojima and the Wachowskis nearly ended up collaborating on a game based on the movie.
Christopher Bergstresser, former vice president of licensing at Konami Digital Entertainment, told Time Extension that the Wachowskis approached Kojima and his Metal Gear Solid team about developing a Matrix game. “The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima,” Bergstresser said. He recalled that the filmmakers arranged a meeting with Kojima at Konami’s headquarters. “The two of them came in with their concept artist, and effectively they said to Kojima, ‘We really want you to do the Matrix game. Can you do that?’ Aki [Saito] translated this into Japanese for Mr. [Kazumi] Kitaue, and Kitaue just looked at them and told them plainly, ‘No’.”
According to Bergstresser, Kitaue, a Konami higher-up, quickly dismissed the idea, insisting that Kojima was to remain focused on the Metal Gear Solid series. At the time, Kojima and his team were in the early stages of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, a project he later noted “shared some similarities [with The Matrix], such as characters running on walls and such.”
Evidence from Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 2 development diary supports this timeline. On August 25, 1999, the day of The Matrix’s Japanese premiere, Kojima met the Wachowskis and their concept artist, Geoff Darrow, at Hyatt Park in Shinjuku.
However, Time Extension also cited another former Konami employee who disputed parts of the story, suggesting Kojima “continued to show strong interest” in the Matrix project after Kitaue’s rejection, and that there was “immense disappointment” among his team when the collaboration failed to materialize. Ultimately, the rights went to Shiny Entertainment, which later developed 2003’s Enter the Matrix and 2005’s The Matrix: Path of Neo.
