Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will be the last game by Kojima Productions according to a Tweet by a Japanese game and movie columnist. According to the Tweet, which can be read below the post, Konami underwent a major restructuring this month and the team developing Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will be possibly dissolved.
If true, this means that Kojima Productions will be no more. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will launch in September of this year so I think Kojima Productions will be shutting its doors shortly after the launch OR will become a part of Konami. Furthermore, a closer look at recent press releases by Konami Japan reveals interesting facts.
According to this release, the restructuring started on 16th March, 2015 which was only a couple of days ago. Furthermore, Hideo Kojima nor Kojima Productions have been mentioned in the official press release announcing the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain’s release which is odd. Normally, the developer’s name would be mentioned. Heck, it even states that the Fox Engine was developed by Konami instead of Kojima Productions. In short, the restructuring happened a while back and we are seeing its effects today.
But I am still clueless as to why Konami would remove Kojima’s name from the branding. Every Metal Gear game that Kojima has worked on has a tagline ‘A Hideo Kojima Game’. Konami are rapidly removing this reference from their website and even from the official Youtube channel, but is somehow present on the new Twitter account for Metal Gear Solid. This obviously points to some sort of dispute between Konami and Kojima but interestingly enough Kojima has been retweeting Konami links from yesterday. So take this as you wish but personally, I think he is staying on and this rebranding thing is just a part of the restructuring.
And for those of you who think this is trolling by Kojima then you are in denial. Branding is a very important element for any organization and they won’t take a joke this far. The writing is on the wall and there is too much smoke for this to be some joke.
I have reached out to Konami regarding more clarification and will update this post as soon as I hear from them.
今後は任天堂がコンシューマへ100%のエネルギーを注がなくなるのは十分に理解できるが、コナミも今月は大リストラしまくって9月発売のMGSⅤでコジプロ作品も最後になるらしいし(チーム解散!?)、大手メーカーが本気でコンシューマから離れていく最後の年にもなりそうやな。寂しい
— ジャンクハンター吉田＠NightCry (@Yoshidamian) March 17, 2015Thanks to our user Karl for emailing us the tweet reference.
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