Hideo Kojima To Depart Konami; Metal Gear Franchise Changing Hands

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 20, 2015 @02:57AM from the jumping-the-solid-shark dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima is set to leave the video game publisher Konami, ending 29 years of service. Konami had announced a restructuring earlier this year, and observant fans recently noticed the removal of references to Kojima Productions from the company's web site. A source speaking to Gamespot states that both developments are the result of a "power struggle" between the studio and its parent. Konami has now confirmed to the English-speaking press that Kojima will work on The Phantom Pain until it is completed, but they are searching for new staff to take over the Metal Gear series. Kojima's only other announced project was Silent Hills, a horror game created in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro.

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Re:Good Riddance by tudsworth · 2015-03-20 08:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

Kojima's been trying to break away from the Metal Gear series for a while now, to be fair. His other notable works; Snatcher/Policenauts, Boktai and Zone of the Enders are all fantastic games; and his ego or arrogance never really imprints them -that- much... or it fits in better with the more fantastical settings of those games.
As for the Metal Gear series getting any better, I don't think I trust Konami circa 2015 to do the franchise justice. Castlevania's name is forever tarnished by subpar God of War clones; Pro Evo Soccer has been floundering about in some attempt to copy FIFA, forgetting all about the more arcade-styled gameplay that set the series apart to begin with; Gradius, Contra, BomberMan (yep, they own that now!) and more franchises than I can remember are essentially dead to them; and the franchises they do still make games for just aren't making them any money due to a complete lack of advertising or just being shoddy products in general.