Kojima leaves Konami to start new Studio *Confirmed*

Given Komai's clarification/response (below), I think there's something in this. Otherwise the clarification really only need be two letters: No.

"Konami Digital Entertainment, including Mr. Kojima, will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements."
 
Knowing Kojima, I wouldnt be surprised if this was yet another elaborate marketing stunt. Guy loves these types of shenanigans.
 
Perhaps Konami just doesn't want to overuse his name, with him now doing Silent Hills and all.
 
I think it's Kojima trolling. If this is happening after MGSV, then it would be more probable. Of course this might turns out to be true, but I've been trolled multiple times by Kojima.
 
but WHY???

My guess is that Kojima wants MGS V to be the last MGS but that goes against Konami's vision.
Konami will keep the IP and Kojima will be free do whatever he wants to do with his new studio.
 
Last edited:
I think it will be more of an issue for Konami in the long run than it will be for Kojima. It must have been quite a spat for them to basically try and eradicate all visible traces of Kojima Productions from the MGSV material.
 
Looking at their financials, they already are not gaming company. They have gaming as a side business.

But what they are doing with Kojima, it ain't right. They could have done this at the end of the next financial year, after MGS5 was done. They don't like that brand of "Hideo Kojima" became more respected than the one of Konami. Or maybe they are doing this because they want to force some specific ending of MGS5, like they did not want to allow death of Solid Snake in MGS4.

As for "Kojima sings too much money", I am not so sure about that. KojiPro is not a big team, all his games are successful, he created brand new awesome engine for entire company, and he managed to put Silent Hill back on the map like a fucking champ with very little effort.

I think they are just wanting to downsize on AAA business, which is a shame. They laid waste to all other properties they have, other talented game directors are long gone, and now they are actively pushing Kojima away.
 
I think it will be more of an issue for Konami in the long run than it will be for Kojima. It must have been quite a spat for them to basically try and eradicate all visible traces of Kojima Productions from the MGSV material.

Finding a new publisher and talent should be no problem even if he goes full indie , I hope he continues with the Silent Hill game - just call it Violent Thrill or something ;)
 
So, it sounds like Kojima (and by extension Kojima Productions) probably wanted more independence (similar to Bungie - Microsoft). And instead of giving it to him, they are removing him from a position of power and disbanding Kojima Productions (unlike Bungie - Microsoft). As well as removing mention of him and Kojima Productions from much of the promotional material.

Sad times. And a big change from when they started to allow him some independence by allowing the formation of Kojima Productions (in 2005) as well as allowing it to inherit past games created by Kojima to be included as Kojima Productions titles.

Regards,
SB
 
I think it will be more of an issue for Konami in the long run than it will be for Kojima. It must have been quite a spat for them to basically try and eradicate all visible traces of Kojima Productions from the MGSV material.

being this is japanese company and all... i wonder whether we can ever get the juicy details of what really happen...

i mean.. they removed kojima's name everywhere. Something big must have happened.

EDIT:
maybe its like that well-known japanese composer that actually did not write his music? Its his neighbor or something that wrote them... Maybe all along it was not Kojima-san thats making metal gear. Its LA-LI-LU-LE-LO, with their AI making games.
 
So, it sounds like Kojima (and by extension Kojima Productions) probably wanted more independence (similar to Bungie - Microsoft). And instead of giving it to him, they are removing him from a position of power and disbanding Kojima Productions (unlike Bungie - Microsoft). As well as removing mention of him and Kojima Productions from much of the promotional material.

Sad times. And a big change from when they started to allow him some independence by allowing the formation of Kojima Productions (in 2005) as well as allowing it to inherit past games created by Kojima to be included as Kojima Productions titles.

Regards,
SB
I just think that either Kojima or Konami are tired of Metal Gear Solid franchise being a too cinematic experience, look at what happened to The Order 1886.

Konami were simply outworldly without Kojima in the past, but now whether they have him or not they've gone d....... *silenthill*.
 
So, it sounds like Kojima (and by extension Kojima Productions) probably wanted more independence (similar to Bungie - Microsoft). And instead of giving it to him, they are removing him from a position of power and disbanding Kojima Productions (unlike Bungie - Microsoft). As well as removing mention of him and Kojima Productions from much of the promotional material.
I'm not sure there is much more than a superficial difference here. Both studios, Bungie and Kojima Productions, ended up leaving their owner/publisher. I don't know that anybody in Bungie was ever any kind of executive in Microsoft like Kojima was with Konami and the Bungie thing happened after they'd shipped a game rather just before they'd shipped their last game. Konami may own 'Kojima Productions' (I don't know) but there's no way they can stop him using his own name in whatever studio he ends up in - assuming it's a leadership position warranting the use of his own name.

From what Konami has since that, that there will be more MGS games, it sounds like if may have been creative freedom differences. Perhaps Kojima genuinely wanted to walk away from the franchise (although he's said this before and returned enthusiastically) or take the game in a different direction.
 
Back
Top