Hideo Kojima has left Konami and is forming his own studio, with him working with Sony in order to release his first game with his new team, reports suggest.
A report from Japanese publication Nikkei has stated that Kojima’s tumultuous relationship with publisher Konami has finally come to an end, with the two parties going their separate ways after a tense year. The report, translated by a NeoGAF user, reads: “[Kojima] will form a new company where he will continue developing video games, with plans to release on platforms such as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE)’s PlayStation.
“He is forming the new company with people who worked under him at Konami. The rights to the Metal Gear series, for which he is most known, remain at Konami, so he will begin working on an all new title. Final negotiations with SCE are underway for this new game to debut on PlayStation.”
It is unclear whether any employees from his former studio Kojima Productions will join him in his latest venture, and it also hasn’t been stated whether the game he is working on will be exclusive to the PS4. Kojima hasn’t worked on an IP other than the Metal Gear series since it was announced that he was directing Silent Hills, though that game was canned by Konami after their dispute with the developer, with its highly praised demo P.T. being pulled from the PlayStation Store as a result. With Konami also holding the rights to the Silent Hill series, it’s unlikely that we’ll see Kojima revisit this project in the future.
The report states that Kojima has officially left Konami as of today, though neither party has released a statement confirming this. Considering that Kojima has been prevented from openly discussing his employment situation due to his contract with Konami, we can imagine that it will only be a matter of time before we learn more about just what on Earth has been happening.
