Metal Gear Solid's historical footage was a headache for Kojima

gamesradar.com:

Putting live action historical footage in Metal Gear Solid was surprisingly difficult for Hideo Kojima and company.

Over the past weekend, Kojima took to Twitter to share a few new details about the original Metal Gear Solid. As reported by SiliconEra (opens in new tab), Kojima revealed that putting historical footage in the stealth-action game was a tough deal, chiefly because he just didn't have the contacts necessary to make licensing negotiation easy.

誰に相談していいか分からず、当時のNHKにも相談に行ったが、うまくいかず。素材購入、編集、権利クリアまで数年かかった。今なら業界との接点も権利窓口にも精通しているので。 https://t.co/ru0tbHLKZrSeptember 3, 2022

It turns out Kojima approached Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, and requested the use of live-action materials for use in Metal Gear Solid. Kojima now claims negotiations went far slower than he initially anticipated because he didn't have the contacts or know-how to procure the footage.

Kojima has now revealed it took him several years to agree a licensing deal with NHK, on top of learning how to edit and insert the footage into Metal Gear Solid. After these events, you'd forgive Kojima for swearing off using historical footage again, but the developer would use live-action footage again in Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3.

From a technical standpoint, as SiliconEra points out, it would've made perfect sense for Kojima to slot live action footage into Metal Gear Solid, as the original PlayStation could play condensed movie files. There really weren't any technical barriers holding Kojima back - it was simply a matter of access.

As we've seen over the past year, licensing surrounding historical footage can be a tricky business. Konami announced in late 2021 that Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 would be pulled from digital storefronts over licensing issues