In a recent interview with Time Extension, an ex-Konami employee claims that The Matrix creators (the Wachowskis) once met with Hideo Kojima to see if he would want to make a game based on the Matrix IP, but that a former Konami higher-up denied the collaboration. Matrix games have been few and far between over the last two and a half decades, and none have hit the same critical or commercial heights as the 1999 movie that started it all.

Neo floating in the air in The Matrix Path of Neo

Though the Matrix franchise seems tailor-made for video game adaptations, the few that have been released haven't been able to hit the mark. But things might have been different if a fateful meeting from 1999 had gone in a different direction.

Hideo Kojima Almost Made a Matrix Video Game

September 23 is Going to Be a Big Day for Hideo Kojima Fans

Time Extension's Jack Yarwood recently interviewed Christopher Bergstresser, a former Vice President of Licensing at Konami Digital Entertainment. During the interview, Bergstresser said that "The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima," and confirmed that a meeting between the filmmakers and the legendary developer did take place back in 1999.

Kojima and the Wachowskis were joined in their meeting by Bergstresser, the filmmakers' concept artist, Akihiro Saito (former Konami dev and Kojima Productions' current Head of Communications), and Kazumi Kitaue, a supervisor and executive producer who would go on to become Konami's CEO a few years after this meeting. According to Bergstresser, the meeting essentially ended when the Wachowskis said something along the lines of, "We really want you to do the Matrix game. Can you do that?" And Kitaue replied with a simple "No."

Hugo Weaving As Smith In The Matrix Revolutions

Time Extension also heard from another former Konami employee whose account of the meeting is slightly different. According to this anonymous source, Kitaue's "No" wasn't the first and final nail in the coffin. Kojima reportedly expressed "strong interest" in a collaboration between himself and the Wachowskis following Kitaue's comment. The collaboration never coming to fruition was apparently very disappointing for Kojima and his development team.

Neo shooting guns in The Matrix Path of Neo

It would be another four years before The Matrix would get its first video game adaptation, that being 2003's Enter the Matrix, an ambitious but deeply flawed canon side story that runs parallel to the events of The Matrix: Reloaded. Just three more Matrix games have been officially released in the 22 years since: 2005's The Matrix: Path of Neo and The Matrix Online, and 2021's The Matrix Awakens.