Kojima Leaving Konami: A Look On The Bright Side

- by Ninja Ross, 3 April 2015

Hideo Kojima is one of the best known and most influential people in the video game industry. Metal Gear Solid is praised as one of the most creative franchises of all time, thanks to Kojima’s creative use of video game mechanics and over the top story telling.

More recently, Kojima, along with Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus, has been attached to the upcoming Silent Hill sequel “Silent Hills,” which was announced using a demo called “P.T,” which convinced everyone they were playing a new intellectual property, until the very end of the demo.

Until now! Reports have been flying around for a while now that Kojima is leaving Konami after the release of Metal gear Solid V, along with several other high level employees.

And it actually gets a bit weird. Kojima and his team aren’t just leaving/being fired, Konami has restricted their access to corporate internet, emails, phones and so on. Even their appearances at press events have been limited! The Kojima Productions brand has even been removed from nearly everything to do with Metal gear Solid (although, new reports are suggesting his name has been put back on a few Metal Gear titles).

Konami haven’t exactly been very clear about what is actually happening, only releasing vague statements about the future of Metal Gear.

Looking at an uncertain future. With one eye.

This is all pretty sad! And negative! What will happen to the Metal gear Solid franchise? What will happen to Silent Hills?!? Oh, it’s a dark time for video games.

But every cloud has a silver lining. Like when that awful song “Hi Ho silver lining” finally ends.

Konami could be in a bit of trouble without Kojima. Besides Metal Gear Solid, Konami don’t really have any very successful franchises right now, with only a handful of mediocre entries to classic ones like Silent Hill and Castlevania. Nothing that puts them anywhere near the influential status they once held.

There’s a very good chance that this could force change. Konami is never going to give up Metal Gear Solid, so we’ll likely see a few unfortunate reboots or stale sequels, but they’ll need to find something else to latch onto. Maybe a new series! Something fresh and invigorating!

It’s more likely they’ll put more work into an existing series, which would most likely be Silent Hill. But, with Kojima leaving Silent Hills, there’s a huge gap to fill.

What will happen to "Silent Hills"?

Kojima working on a Silent Hill game would be incredible. Silent Hill fans have been wetting themselves in excitement ever since it was even mentioned, and the P.T demo proved that Kojima knew how to handle horror. If you’ve played it or if you’ve seen video walkthrough, you’ll know it’s one of the creepiest things to exist in the mainstream video game world.

So, Konami are going to have to do something pretty impressive, now that they’ve lost Kojima! Like, say, bring on someone like Goichi Suda A.K.A Suda51, creator of games like Killer 7, No More Heroes and Killer is Dead.

Suda51 isn’t quite as innovative as Kojima, but in some ways he would be the better choice. Suda51 has an eye for all things creepy and could bring an incredibly absurd, dark atmosphere to Silent Hill. And, with del Toro on board, it could be one of the greatest horror games ever known by man.

Shinji Mikami, the guy who made Resident Evil 4 one of the most celebrated horror video games around, would also be a great choice for the series. Mikami knows how to give a horror game the right atmosphere. Sure, some of the video game mechanics in the Resident Evil series are a bit outdated and his latest game, The Evil Within could have been better, but he’d still be an excellent choice for Silent Hills.

Suda and Mikami both have some great games under their belts.

But that’s the bright side for Konami. What about Kojima? Surely, he’ll die if he can’t make more Metal Gear Solid games! That’s it for Kojima! Unless he makes a brand new video game at a different studio.

Every video game studio in the world is no doubt trying to contact Hideo Kojima right now. They’ll likely offer him near entire creative control over whatever project he wants to work on and give him pretty much whatever budget he wants.

Whether he comes up with a brand new IP, or if he wants to work on an existing franchise, it’ll no doubt be insane and a lot of fun. Kojima hasn’t actually done anything that’s not Metal Gear in years, so it would be nice to see him bring his unique sensibilities to something new. And no doubt he’ll bring along every member of Kojima Productions to follow him away from Konami.

There is also the chance that this is all a joke. I was convinced that this was Kojima’s idea of an elaborate April Fool’s joke. He is known for his practical jokes and deception. When Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was first announced, it was simply called “Phantom Pain,” with false development teams attached. Even when games figured out that it was a Metal Gear game, Kojima denied it for quite a while.

Although it IS past the first of April, it would surprise no one to find out that Kojima was just taking a joke a bit too far. It’s looking doubtful, though.

Whether Kojima is leaving or not, it’s not all doom and gloom! Always look on the bright sine and all that. Good things can come of this split. Like two Christmases every year and competitions for our affection.


Where do you stand on Kojima leaving? Let us know in the comments!

Tagged: video games.

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