For about year now, we’ve been hearing reports about Hideo Kojima and his team at Kojima Productions being in talks with Microsoft for an Xbox-exclusive title that will be developed as a cloud-native game. First reported by journalist Jeff Grubb, he said in July last year that the deal was edging closer to completion, though the ink doesn’t seem to have dried on it in the time since then, seeing as there have been no official announcements.
While some might be wondering whether the deal between the two parties is still on, Grubb says it very much is. In a recent episode of his Giant Bomb show GrubbSnax, he said that “as of a couple of weeks ago”, the deal between Kojima and Xbox is still on. Grubb was discussing recent rumours of Kojima Productions being acquired by Sony, and said that while it was still possible for the studio to have a deal in place with Xbox and still get acquired by Sony, he doesn’t think an acquisition has happened.
Interestingly, previous rumours have claimed that Kojima Productions’ Xbox game will be part of an existing Microsoft IP rather than something new. Recently, Microsoft also established new cloud-focused Xbox Game Studios Publishing division, which will be focused on partnering with “world class game development teams to develop cloud-native games to bring unprecedented experiences to players.” Read more on that through here.