The release date for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC is confirmed for September and game fans are already starting to get excited. But with the upcoming launch of Metal Gear Solid 5 comes speculations that Hideo Kojima will be leaving Konami after the game is released four months from now.
The past three months has been an eventful period for both game publisher Konami and veteran game designer Hideo Kojima, who designed popular games such as Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid. So much has been written about the strained relationship between Konami and Kojima, but no confirmed news whether the game designer will really leave Konami.
There has been a lot of "evidence" over the past months which points to the two parting ways, starting with news that due to power struggles within Konami, Hideo Kojima and the Metal Gear team will be leaving the company within the year. Other indicators includes Konami removing Kojima Productions logo from the Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid 5 websites but eventually reinstating them to quell rumors and speculations about the split, and Konami announcing that the horror game Silent Hill is no longer in development.
It also doesn't help that official websites and social media accounts of Kojima Productions are now inactive or has been redirected, latest of which is Kojima Productions Facebook page. Fans are also finding hidden meanings behind statements or interviews which somehow hints about Kojima's departure. One such instance is when Kojima was interview last March about the Metal Gear Solid series, he explained how the Metal Gear series he's designed himself such as Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the five numbered Metal Gear Solid titles and Peace Walker, as being a "single Metal Gear saga." He further mentions that he's closing the loop of that saga with Metal Gear Solid 5 and how for him, it will be the final Metal Gear Solid even if the franchise continues. This led to game fans interpreting this to be Kojima's final Metal Gear Solid with Konima.
Meawhile, Konami's president Hideki Hayakama announced that future of Konami will primarily lie in mobile gaming efforts. He further explained how with multiplatform games, there no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. He adds that mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world and how the success of pay-as-you-play games such as Power Pro and Winning Eleven has motivated them into actively pushing more of their popular series onto the mobile platform.
Aside from such updates, Konima has mostly been silent, having only released news about company restructuring plans, report earnings for latest financial quarter, Silent Hill game cancellation, Metal Gear Solid 5 release date, among others. But no updates to provide status of a Kojima-Konami partnership.
Join the Conversation