Hideo Kojima's reputation in gaming is unmatched. There aren't many 'household names' in gaming because players tend to associate games with studios, rather than individuals. In most cases, this is the correct way of thinking as hundreds, if not thousands, of people contribute to creating a successful triple-A game. It's the collective experience of a studio of creators that makes a game great.
However, Hideo Kojima is a creative that people associate with interesting, groundbreaking games. Kojima earned this reputation at Konami and now has full creative control over his projects at his independent studio, Kojima Productions. A recent Washington Post article referred to Kojima as an "auteur," essentially a director with so much influence over a project that they transcend the role and instead define the entire work. This is a common title granted to Kojima in the media.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard's creative director John Epler took to the social media site Bluesky to comment on Kojima's status as one of gaming's few auteurs (nice spot, GamesRadar+), saying "Generally I resist the idea of auteurship in games, because so much of how a game turns out is out of the control of any individual person, but Kojima...
