Report: Kojima to leave Konami After Metal Gear Solid 5 Releases
An anoymous source claims that Hideo Kojima is likely to leave Konami after the completion of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
An insider claims that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is on his way out, following rumors that circulated this morning.
A source inside Konami reportedly claims that these rumors are tied to an apparent in-house power struggle between the Metal Gear team and Konami, characterized by the senior staff's restricted access to internet, email, and phone. Additionally, Kojima will have limited opportunities to appear in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain promotions. It is also said that the entire MGS development team are essentially working as contractors, not full time staff, which could mean that the entire management team will disband shortly after the Phantom Pain project is completed.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, states: "After we finish MGSV, Mr. Kojima and upper management will leave Konami. They said their contract ends in December."
It's looking like these reports might be true, as Konami has begun removing the Kojima Productions logo from all official Metal Gear art, along with the Twitter and official Metal Gear websites. Hideo Kojima himself was taken off the Konami's executive team. Fans noticed the missing art which began the speculation.
A statement from Konami on the matter states:
"As we have already announced, we are shifting our production structure to a headquarters-controlled system, in order to establish a steadfast operating base capable of responding to the rapid market changes that surround our digital entertainment business. Konami Digital Entertainment (including Mr. Kojima), will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements."
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is expected to release in September for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.
Source: Gamespot
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replySteven Wong posted a new article, Report: Kojima to leave Konami After Metal Gear Solid 5 Releases
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I can't see Kojima ever tying himself to the weakest tech.
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Nintendo treats its people well.
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Both Shinji Mikami and Keiji Inafune have their own independent studios right now where they want to act more as executives grooming a new generation of talent, vs. doing hands on game direction/production. Kojima has also mentioned he wanted to move in this direction.
What does it all mean? I think it just means these dudes want to own studios, and grow them into strong entities that could support multiple titles in development, published by various publishers as it suits, along the lines of what Atlus and From have done for years, and what Platinum and Grasshopper have had a bit more limited success with.
Is it realistic to think all these guys can create enough IP, find enough talent and source enough funding to all be viable? I am not so sure about that, but you never know. It's the ultimate end result of the Japanese game auteur environment. I have to agree it'd be better for all of them to join forces in a super group rather than each pursuing the same efforts individually.
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If Silent Hills never becomes a thing there will be blood in the fuckin streets
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ah...oh man forgot he was attached to that one
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Im really worried about this.. was looking forward to the new Silent Hills.. It'll also been the 2nd game canned that Del Toro was working on. Dudes never gonna get a game out at this rate..
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If some bean-counting asswad kicked Kojima out to gain control of Metal Gear, Konami have essentially committed seppuku. The cult around him will not tolerate a non-Kojima Metal Gear, especially if this betrayal bullshit is true.
And it will probably mean the end for Silent Hills. Enthusiasm has been low, this will kill it.-
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Conversely I'd like to see a non metal gear kojima game.
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Current gen Zone of Enders please...
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oh no thats a weird situation, cause even if kojima makes a new company with his people, they cant touch the MGS license.
remember when konami made cool games like contra and castlevania-
and Suikoden! I miss those games.
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Didn't he say after MGS3 that he was done making Metal Gear games? I guess this is more believable but I'll believe it when the next MGS6 is done and he has not involvement.
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Yep. He's like Larry David during his days writing Seinfeld: every time he thinks he's out, they pull him back in.
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Same with Miyazaki, though it seems like maybe he's finally really done.
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I remember reading somewhere that MGS was one of Konami's only remaining game IPs. I might have heard that on the Giant Bombcast.
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Yeah, I remember something like that, along the lines of all Konami has is MGS and Castlevania at this point, which is really messed up.
Seems like a lot of the classic old-school Japanese developers are having some kinda problems. Nintendo, Konami, Capcom..Sega-Sammy I think as well? Square survived thanks to the Enix merger and the EA-like gobbling up of other companies like Eidos (I guess they learned something from that deal they had during the Playstation era, eh? Remember Square-EA and the reciprocal EA-Square?). And lord knows how many other smaller developers like Treasure I'm forgetting.
Maybe Nintendo should sink some of their alleged massive cash reserves into buying Japanese developers that are on hard times and unifying a lot of the Japanese game development base under the Nintendo banner, like how Activision and EA have done here in the US. That might make for an interesting comeback for the eternal West VS. East game development struggle.
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ya, pretty sure this isnt a kojima "act" The whole April 1st thing just points to the start of their fiscal year.
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Any bets on how long it'll be till the whole series is rebooted?
I bet immediately after Phantom Pain ships Konami starts working on a new "Metal Gear" game featuring Solid Snake and is a complete reboot ala JJ's Star Trek reboot. And then they'll be two separate Metal Gear universes/franchises and everything will be even more convoluted as the cycle begins anew.
I just want the original Metal Gear Solid theme back, goddamnit. >:(-
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Internal leak reveals Konami's near future plans: https://twitter.com/tortoiseontour/status/578942729612316672
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just leaving this here
http://imgur.com/fULPzm8
