Hideo Kojima wanted to put ‘corporate ads’ in his own game
Hideo Kojima nearly added adverts to an old Nintendo DS game in an attempt to lower its retail price, but dropped the idea after others didn’t support it.
Speaking about Lunar Knights – a Nintendo DS JRPG released by Kojima Productions in 2007, and called Boktai DS in Japan – on Twitter(opens in new tab), Kojima revealed his initial plans for the game. He wanted to use the upper screen of the Nintendo DS not for gameplay, but to show adverts to players.
“We set the upper screen of the Boktai DS version [to] a 'pseudo-sun'. What I wanted to do was to put 'corporate ads' on the upper screen and use the revenue from those ads to lower the price of the packaged product (almost free),” Kojima tweeted.
“I gave it up because there were not many supporters and there were many obstacles to overcome, but it is not a rare project now.”
In the final version of Lunar Knights, the Nintendo DS’s upper screen is used to display the game’s paraSOL weather control system. Players can see whether the sun or moon are currently shining in the game’s world and whether they’re obscured by clouds. These weather conditions determine the energy and abilities of the game's two main playable characters.
1/2In the end, we set the upper screen of the Boktai DS version is a «pseudo-sun». What I wanted to do was to put «corporate ads» on the upper screen and use the revenue from those ads to lower the price of the packaged product (almost free).June 29, 2022
Kojima is no stranger to putting adverts in his games. The Metal Gear Solid series has seen numerous instances of product placement. The CalorieMate energy supplement that restores Naked Snake’s stamina in Metal Gear Solid 3 is styled after a real Japanese energy bar, and Metal Gear Solid 4 features
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