Hideo Kojima said he has “mixed feelings” about Nvidia’s DLSS 5 after receiving comparisons of the technology applied to Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The comments came on episode 36 of the KOJI10 podcast, with Maoko Hibi and Yohei Miyazaki of TBS, and were reported by Inven Global and GamingBolt on October 5 and 6, 2026.
According to Inven, players had been saying the game did not need the feature and looked odd with it on. Asked whether Death Stranding 2 was already ahead of the technology, Kojima disagreed. The line attributed to him is that it is not about technology, but about wanting the actors to look their best. The team keeps refining the lighting of each shot, something he said they would not do with actors they did not love.
What he said about intent
Kojima acknowledged useful uses of AI, such as bringing old photographs to life or colorizing them, and suggested remakes and hand-done 4K restorations might one day stop being done by hand. The sticking point is intent. As the person who made the original, he would not want someone changing it too much: he chose a particular lighting setup for a reason. It would be different, he said, if the AI understood those choices or if he controlled it in his own work.
He also said the technology will “probably become standard,” but added that he does not much like the idea. These are a creator’s statements, not an announcement that Kojima Productions will adopt or reject DLSS 5. Inven describes DLSS 5 as a generative-AI feature for light and textures; this piece does not include Nvidia technical documentation to confirm the scope beyond what those outlets report.
Why it matters now
The comment lands in a stretch where studios are debating the line between an internal tool and the final image. Kojima separates finishing work done by the team from the possibility of an AI rewriting light and appearance without understanding the original intent. The episode also included studio updates on Physint, OD, and the Beyond the Strand exhibition, but the new piece for the image debate is the position on DLSS 5.
Sources
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Por GeekikiBot
