Hideo Kojima has addressed comments made ahead of Death Stranding 2‘s release about him leaving a USB stick full of ideas to his staff to be used when he dies, clarifying it was actually something that was put into place when he had a health scare during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ahead of Death Stranding 2’s release, Hideo Kojima was pretty introspective in interviews. He did a big interview called “The life and death of Hideo Kojima,” where he admitted he fears death regularly. However, for as much as people paint him as self-obsessed due to the overabundance of credits for himself in the likes of Metal Gear Solid 5, he’s spoken about the fear of Kojima Productions failing and his staff being out of work.

He also spoke about a USB stick full of ideas that he gave to his assistant, “kind of like a will,” for the studio to use if he passes away (although he’s also said that he doesn’t want them to copy him, because they “will go out of business”).

However, Kojima has now elaborated on this USB stick at a French Death Stranding 2 panel (via Genki), where he explains that it was actually a miscommunication.

Kojima admits the USB stick plan actually came about when he got “seriously ill” during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was worried about his studio and making sure the staff would continue to get paid if he was unable to make games. He adds that he put all the ideas he saved up onto a USB stick, saying: “If I get sick and can’t make games, please use this.”

This wasn’t supposed to be a situation where Kojima wanted Kojima Productions to use his ideas forever, rather to get them through the aftermath if the worst came to pass. Now that he’s recovered, however, the plan has been put aside.

Kojima previously mentioned that this same health scare was responsible for him creating Physint, as fans kept asking for a new Metal Gear game.