It is as many have feared. As of Saturday, July 11th, 2015, Konami has dissolved Kojima Productions. It has been a while since we’ve heard anything about Hideo Kojima or Kojima Productions but according to the Japanese voice actor for Solid Snake, Akio Otsuka, the final nail in the coffin has been confirmed. In a tweet, the voice actor said:
“Kojima Productions was forced to disband, but it appears that the work that the team has been putting their utmost effort into is nearly complete. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I expect it will become their greatest masterpiece. I couldn’t help it. I just wanted to say ‘Kept you waiting, huh?’ But even if this is the end, Metal Gear Solid is immortal.”
With the cancellation of Silent Hills earlier in the year, rumors started circulating that Kojima’s position in Konami was tentative at best. When his name was removed from the upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, there was plenty of speculation that the revered game designer had already terminated.
While we were somewhat wrong about this, the assumption wasn’t far off the mark. It has been assured that Kojima will continue at Konami until the games release on September 1st of this year. So what will Kojima do after Konami?
In all honesty, nothing can be certain. In an interview with Kojima published by Game Informer on February 21st, 2014, it was said that Kojima would like to pursue movies for writing beyond video games. While one should not take this out of context and assume this is the next direction the game developer will be going, maybe there’s a chance that we could see Hideo Kojima work in another media instead of video games. Wherever he may go, we wish in the best in all of his endeavors. It would be sad to see the end of the 28-year-old epic, Metal Gear, though all good things must come to an end.
