[UPDATE]: Well, that didn’t take long. According to a recent confirmation by Gamespot, Hideo Kojima is expected to leave Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. What’s more shocking however, is what’s going on behind closed doors at Konami’s offices.
According to the report which has been confirmed by “inside sources,” a fallout between Kojima Productions and Konami has led to drastic measures being taken. Key developers at Kojima Productions, along with Kojima himself, will have “limited opportunities to lend their appearance to promotions of the studio’s upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.”
Along with this, it was also revealed that after the release of MGSV, it is very likely that the entire management at the studio will leave, with their source claiming that “after we finish MGSV, Mr. Kojima and upper management will leave Konami. They said their contract ends in December.”
Obviously, this is insanely huge news. Konami has already begun removing Kojima Productions logos from all of their Metal Gear art, as well as removing him from the company’s executive list as previously reported. What will happen now that we know Kojima is planning on leaving after Metal Gear Solid V? The real question now becomes what will he do following his departure? Smart money would bet that wherever he goes, a number of his staff will follow. If another publisher can snatch him up, it would be a huge gain for any company. Stay tuned for any further updates.
Original story is below:
Before we jump into this, let’s just start by saying that we don’t really have any solid leads on whether or not this is happening. Messages to Konami have not been responded to, and pretty much all of this is speculation.
Earlier today, Konami made an announcement of an organizational restructuring (details can be found here), and for some reason, Hideo Kojima’s name was noticeably absent from the title of Executive Content Officer. At around the same time, the KojiPro and Metal Gear Solid V twitter accounts began linking to a strictly Konami website.
Following the announcement, Konami responded to questions regarding the situation with the following release:
“Konami Digital Entertainment, including Mr. Kojima, will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements.”
That sounds… pretty non committal. Shortly after that, it was noticed that the box art for Metal Gear Solid V has been changed in a way. Normally, every MGS game has had the tagline of “A Hideo Kojima Game” somewhere on the box art. After all of this hoopla, however, Konami seemingly changed the pictures and removed all reference to Kojima.
That seems to be where we’re at in terms of development. Does this mean Hideo Kojima is no longer associated with Konami? The signs are starting to point more and more towards YES. Until anything is official however, we can’t say for sure. This is the same guy who surprised us all with Raiden, PT, and Moby Dick.
Make sure to stay tuned to this article for any updates.
Source: Reddit, VG247, Videogamer, Gamespot
