Now that the dust has seemingly settled in the bitter end to Hideo Kojima (the world renowned director of the Metal Gear Solid series) and former publisher Konami’s relationship of over 20 years, let’s take a look at what the mastermind is up to with his new IP and game studio “Kojima Productions”.Post Date: 6/2/16
For most of Kojima’s developing career, he has typically worked in the shadows with his game designs, but now he is taking full control over the direction of this new game and I’m very excited to see what’s hiding behind curtain number one. It’s worth noting that for this first new IP he is working on, Sony will be publishing it exclusively for their platforms. However, after this first release, he has stated he is open to working with all publishers.
In regards to his relationship with Konami, Kojima has been quite null on what happened between the two to cause such a fracture in their relationship. The publishing company went as far as taking Kojima’s name off the promotional art and box art of Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain. It must have been something huge for a former Vice President of Konami, who they owe much of their success to, to fall out of graces so quickly.
Now I have to admit something, I am a HUGE fan of the Metal Gear series, it changed video games for me. I tear up whenever I hear Solid Snake’s battered voice say “War has changed…” and believe me when I say Solid Snake, I mean David Hayter, the original voice actor. I followed Kojima’s works from a young boy and I’ve played all the main titles, even MGS: Peace Walker on the PlayStation Portable. I also was a fan of Zone of Enders, which was another well-received sort of Gundam meets Armored Core production. Now onto the main point, what could Kojima be up to in his new IP?
It’s not surprising at this point that little is known other than the Kojima Productions icon was revealed to be a character in the game. It is also known that unfortunately, he will not be using the Fox Engine that was used for MGSV. However, he has been seen shopping around other developers and testing their game engines. With that said, here’s what I believe we can expect from Kojima-san:
- It will be an intricate game with loads of detail. The director is known for his love of movies and playing with themes throughout his games. Look for a lot of flavor from the team in this new IP.
- Sony is not holding his hand or holding him back. He has full control over the direction of this new game. This could not be said for Konami especially through the development of the last Metal Gear Solid release. There were many things he was unable to do, despite releasing an extraordinary game, I can’t help but feel it could have been near perfect if Konami was not playing big brother.
- Kojima has noted that he will draw inspiration from movies and players can expect something of the scale of Uncharted or The Division. It will be an AAA level game from a small scale studio with a near open-world experience. I don’t know about you, but for me that is a definite positive. We haven’t seen an AAA from Kojima and with his hands untied I believe he will deliver.
Honestly, I am just excited to see what Kojima can cook up with his new studio, luckily he had a lot of his old MGS/Fox team come with him. While the time of Snake with Hideo directing him may be long over, “it’s not over yet!”. I think there’s something we can all agree on, that leaving behind Konami will be a positive for us gamers and Hideo himself.
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