For Kojima, the future involves ridding himself of distracting responsibilities. “When working in big companies, especially Japanese companies, every little thing has to be approved beforehand, and you need paperwork to do anything,” he said. “Now that I’m independent, I can do what I want with much more speed. I don’t need to invest time in unnecessary presentations. I shoulder the risk.” He also relishes the chance to speak his mind. “When I was in a company, my personal statements could be taken as the over-all direction of the company. As such, I couldn’t say just anything.”

Godspeed, Hideo.