After a few hours of investigating by fans, it has been confirmed that the Kojima Productions name has been retired.
It all started when references to Kojima Productions were quietly removed from Konami’s website. His company’s name has also been removed from the Japanese site for Metal Gear Solid 5, and any reference to the company has also been removed from social media accounts. Kojima himself no longer appears as an executive for Konami himself.
When prompted, Konami shared this statement, which you can read verbatim below:
Konami Digital Entertainment, including Mr. Kojima, will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements.
The clincher was this last piece of evidence, as shared by fan Nibellion on Twitter.
Kojima Production is now renamed to Konami Los Angeles Studio
Kojima Productions is dead – pic.twitter.com/mIxPJwqOqt
— Nibel (@Nibellion) March 19, 2015
So it seems the studio itself stays intact, but figurehead Hideo Kojima has disassociated himself with the Metal Gear franchise. It’s possible that Kojima will move on to make smaller games now, as he’s expressed interest in doing so almost a year ago.
This also raises questions about the future of Kojima’s other pending project with Konami, Silent Hills, as well as the future of the Metal Gear games. It also cannot be discounted that this could be another elaborate con on the level of the Phantom Pain promotion.
Do you think Kojima has silently set into motion plans in place for years? Or could something suddenly have happened to make this happen? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
