After a tumultuous year for creator Hideo Kojima, it’s finally official. Hideo Kojima has left Konami and established his own independent studio, aptly named Kojima Productions.
Straight Outta Konami
After months of bizarre reports and uncertainties, Kojima, the mastermind behind franchises such as Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders, made an official announcement on his twitter account about his release from Konami. While there have been reports of Kojima setting off and establishing his own studio, the question in gamers mind was whether Sony or Microsoft will nab Kojima first.
Turns out, Sony was faster on the trigger and secured an exclusive Playstation 4 title by Kojima and his studio, Kojima Productions. The partnership was announced via a video that featured Kojima with Andrew House, President of Sony Computer Entertainment.
With a new logo and a newly independent studio, the partnership marks a new chapter for Kojima as he tweeted the following message on his twitter account, further solidifying his breakup from Konami.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 16, 2015
A Playstation Project And Beyond
In an exclusive interview with IGN, Kojima further elaborated his plans with Kojima Productions and what he intends the studio to pursuit in the future. The first being the exclusive Playstation title that’s currently a top-secret project over at Kojima Production. Kojima explained that he wanted to “create something that’s what people expect, but at the same time will have something new that people haven’t seen before,” before ending with the fact that “it will be a complete game.”
Sharing his sentiment is Yoji Shinkawa, Art Director, and long-time Kojima collaborator who states “We’ve been working on a franchise that is beloved and has recognizable characters. One of my big goals is, visually, with whatever character we create, to go beyond that, to be more recognizable, more beloved. That’s definitely one of the goals I have when it comes to the art side.”
But Kojima is seeing beyond the video game medium for his studio, stating the following “The focus is on digital content, so we could consider movies, animations, anything.” He continued, “But first I think people expect games from me. That’s where I want to put my focus. Once we have an established IP in games, something solid that satisfies people, then we can consider movies and videos.”
Regardless how it all came to be, it’s great to see that Kojima is back and ready to make his next media masterpiece. We wish Kojima all the best and hope Kojima Productions will make some great games for all gamers in the coming future.
Source: IGN
