Konami instantly shot down the Wachowskis’ request to have Hideo Kojima make a Matrix game, it’s claimed
The filmmakers met with Kojima and Konami while Metal Gear Solid 2 was in development
Konami immediately shot down a request from The Matrix creators the Wachowskis to have Hideo Kojima make a game based on the movie.
That’s according to former Konami vice president of licensing Christopher Bergstresser, who recently gave Time Extension more detail on the long-running rumours that Kojima was in discussions to potentially make a Matrix game.
According to Bergstresser, those discussions didn’t really continue beyond a single sentence, when a Konami executive refused the proposal right away.
Bergtresser recalled that because the Wachowskis were admirers of Kojima’s work, they wanted to meet up with him when The Matrix was set to have its Japanese premiere.
However, when the question of Kojima potentially working on a Matrix game was brought up, Konami’s Kazumi Kitaue – who would go on to become CEO of Konami Digital Entertainment a few years later, wasn’t interested.
“The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima,” Bergstresser said. “So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who still works with Kojima), and I were at the Konami HQ, and we got a call from the Wachowskis, who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima. So they did.
“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 translated this into Japanese for Mr Kitaue, and Kitaue just looked at them and told them plainly: ‘No.’ We did still get to enjoy the Matrix Japanese premiere and afterparty, though.”
Instead, the Matrix video game was developed by Shiny Entertainment (Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah) and released in 2003 as Enter the Matrix.
While Enter the Matrix was a commercial success, selling 5 million copies within a year, it wasn’t critically well-received and is generally considered these days to have been an underwhelming game, despite offering over an hour of original footage written and directed by the Wachowskis.
It was followed in 2005 by the now-defunct PC game The Matrix Online, before Shiny returned in 2005 with The Matrix: Path of Neo, which this time recreated moments from the films.
Since then, there haven’t been any full Matrix video games, only cameos in games like MultiVersus. In 2021, however, Epic Games released The Matrix Awakens, a tech demo designed to show off the power of Unreal Engine 5.
