Kojima Starts Kojima Productions, New Game for PlayStation [Updated]

Updated: Sony Computer Entertainment has just released a video Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House and Hideo Kojima announcing Kojima's new studio, Kojima Productions. The independent studio will be making its first game for a PlayStation platform. The video announcement is below:

Original story: According to a recent report from the Japanese publication Nikkei (translated via Gematsu), Hideo Kojima has potentially worked his final day at Konami. The report says the Metal Gear Solid creator's last official day was yesterday, December 15, the final day of his contract. The report further states that Kojima is making a new studio with his former staff and is in talks with Sony Computer Entertainment to make his first game on a PlayStation platform.

It was originally reported back in October by the New Yorker that Kojima left Konami. At the very least, the studio had a farewell party for the director, producer, and game designer. As I said at the time, Kojima's departure felt like largely a formality, with Konami having seemingly cut all ties already.

Previous reports about the situation between Kojima and Konami were not pretty. In March, anonymous sources said that Kojima was leaving Konami after Metal Gear Solid V, with Konami restricting office communications and moving senior staff to contract positions. At the same time, Konami rejiggered its executive rollcall to remove Kojima and erased his name from the MGSV cover art. Silent Hills, a collaboration between Kojima and director Guillermo del Toro, was cancelled a month later. Kojima Productions Los Angeles was shuttered last month.

All in all, it was a sad and disrespectful end to a long partnership.

The move will separate Kojima from the universes he's created in the past: Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher, Zone of Enders. Also any work he did for Silent Hills at Konami is probably completely owned by the publisher. Kojima is starting fresh, but this means he also has a chance to work on something that's not Metal Gear Solid.

If true, the report above represents another great creator or studio that Sony will have under its belt. Microsoft has been trying to line up more exclusives to catch up to the PlayStation 4's commanding lead, but games like Street Fighter V, Persona 5, Valkyria: Azure Revolution, and Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness are making it hard. PlayStation-exclusive Kojima? That's a major blow as well.