Hideo Kojima's OD: Everything we know so far

OD is a new "one-of-a-kind experience" coming to us from Hideo Kojima. First revealed back in 2023 - in a mysterious teaser trailer that introduced us to some of the faces of the game - OD, or Overdose as it's also known, is being made with Xbox Game Studios as one of the many big upcoming Xbox Series X games on the way.

Promising to "explore the concept of testing your fear threshold, and what it means to overdoes on fear", it certainly sounds like it has all of the makings of one unsettling upcoming horror game to watch out for in the future that's set to make use of Microsoft's Cloud gaming technology. Plus, with some big names said to be attached, and some tantalizing teases about what it's striving to do, it's quickly become one of the most curious new games in the pipeline.

With some other upcoming Hideo Kojima games in the works, Kojima Productions is currently focused on bringing us the sequel to Death Stranding this June, and new surfaced last year that revealed "scanning and filming" were suspended for OD due to SAG-AFTRA strikes, so it may be some time before we learn about the project, but we'll certainly be watching out for more updates about its direction. In the meantime, read on below to get a full recap of everything we know so far about Hideo Kojima's OD.

OD (Overdose) gameplay experience

At least when creative director Hideo Kojima was working on Metal Gear Solid games, you sort of knew what you were getting – cinematic stealth action. But as soon as he started to stretch into other franchises and new IP, his work became more difficult to anticipate. P.T. was a masterclass in looping psychological horror, Death Stranding, an oddly esoteric game about hiking through an apocalypse, and then there's OD.

Kojima himself has said that he is "creating a very unique, immersive, and totally new style of game – or rather, a new form of media." The first teaser trailer ends with a sting claiming that Overdose will be "for all the players and screamers." There's a lot to unravel here, so let's start with genre, as that's easier to figure out: OD will be a horror. Kojima Productions says that "OD explores the concept of testing your fear threshold, and what it means to OD on fear."

Okay, so that's a start. The studio also says that it will do this "while blurring the boundaries of gaming and film", which is where things start getting a little more complicated. At The Game Awards, Kojima reaffirmed that OD "is a game, don't get me wrong" but then went on to note that "at the same time, it's a movie; and at the same time, it's a new form of media."

It does sound a tad confusing, which is likely why Academy Award winning filmmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us, Nope) has come on board to collaborate. In fact, Kojima later revealed Peele is just one of "several talented storytellers involved in the project", with a host of big names said to be attached in a group he refers to as 'The Avengers'. We don't yet know any more names involved in the project (beyond the actors mentioned below), but Kojima teases that whenever he shows the list of people who are a part of OD to his agents and managers "they can hardly believe it's true". How curious.

A very bizarre leak in 2022 wasn't all that helpful in figuring out what style of play we should anticipate here, but it could blend some degree of active and passive play – owing to the fact that Overdrive development is being driven through a partnership with Microsoft Gaming, leveraging the power of Xbox Cloud Gaming for development.

The speculation game is actually quite important to these sort of weird creative endeavors - which is something we touch in our article exploring just why The Xbox Game Studios and Kojima Productions partnership is important. Kojima says he wants to "make something nobody has seen before" – we know that it'll be a horror, and that it'll blur the line between games and film, but exactly what shape that will take remains to be seen. And we likely won't see anything more for a while yet.

OD cast

Hideo Kojima has unveiled the actors who will take starring roles in OD, although he is yet to confirm the names of the characters that they will eventually play. It's likely to be a little while before we learn more about the OD cast, but you can find the current list of will star in the project here:

• Sophia Lillis (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)
• Hunter Schaffer (Euphoria)
• Udo Kier (Flesh for Frankenstein)

OD teaser trailer

The first OD trailer was unveiled at The Game Awards 2023. The short teaser shows three of the core cast in what appears to effectively be motion-capture screen tests – floating heads on a black background, rendered by Epic's Unreal Engine 5 and MetaHuman technologies, as the eyes illuminate the lights and camera in front of them. You can watch the first teaser trailer for Hideo Kojima's OD above.

OD expected release date and platforms

The OD release date is still likely to be years away at this point. Creative director Hideo Kojima is certainly focused on development of Death Stranding 2 right now, with this upcoming Xbox Series X game expected to follow after. Kojima Productions and Xbox Game Studios announced their collaboration in 2022, explaining that the two development houses were working to utilize the power of the cloud. What that means for platforms is anybody's guess, but I'd suspect that it will land on Xbox Series X, PC, and mobile devices via Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Game Pass.