UPDATED – Gamespot: Kojima Expected to Leave Konami After MGS5, Inside Source Confirms
Posted By: Whitney March 19th, 2015 | 11:26 am
Well shit. News broke today that Kojima may be leaving Konami.
Power struggles between Kojima Productions and Konami have led the publisher to make drastic changes, including the employee status of its Metal Gear team. Some senior staff at the studio, including Kojima, now essentially work as contractors, not permanent employees.
Gamespot’s inside source reports:
“After we finish MGSV, Mr. Kojima and upper management will leave Konami. They said their contract ends in December.”
Konami has already begun to remove Kojima Products from all official MGSV sites, social media and even promotional artworks.
It really seems there some sort of bad blood between the publisher and the developer but a Konami representative told IGN that they are just restructuring production:
“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.”
So what does this all mean for Silent Hills? I have no friggen clue, hopefully we will get some sort of announcement about it’s fate sometime soon. I really hope the game will still happen. 🙁
UPDATE
Peter Brown, editor at Gamespot, said on twitter:
In regards to the Kojima Productions news and Silent Hills: that game is part of a deal between Del Toro and Konami, not Kojima.
I hope this is a good sign the game will still happen!
whitney. …this Bad. ….for all of us….i hope this is a joke from konami…. without silent hill……..gaming dies!
This game still has to happen though, right? Would it really get cancelled over this? Hopefully Peter Brown is right and Silent Hills will continue as long as Del Toro is still tied with Konami. Hopefully…