In what might be the least surprising announcement this year, the convoluted battle between Hideo Kojima and Konami has come to an end. Kind of.
According to Japan’s Nikkei, Kojima has officially left Konami as of December 15th. Nikkei also revealed that Kojima is working to establish a new studio (where one can assume he will have more autonomy), possibly working with Sony in order to make it happen. Pairing with Sony would make sense given the background between Kojima’s much lauded Metal Gear franchise and Playstation consoles.
This bizarre circus surrounding Kojima’s departure from Konami has been escalating since March of this year when Konami announced they were restructuring and scrubbing Kojima Productions’ footprint from Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Konami also cancelled Kojima’s collaboration with Guillermo del Toro on a new Silent Hill title. Even going so far as to remove the demo PT from digital stores.
This new reveal comes hot on the heels of Konami preventing Kojima from attending The Game Awards 2015, despite an award being given to Kojima. The entire debacle has yet to be unraveled, but until we get the whole story, we can tide ourselves over knowing that Hideo Kojima is still going to be making games.
UPDATE: Well, it’s official! Kojima is forming a new studio and will be producing a PS4 exclusive title. While the studio is independent, their inaugural game will be released on PS4 (and PC). It is a fantastic partnership, the same one that brought us Metal Gear Solid. You can see the introduction video with Sony’s Andrew House and Kojima below.
