Metal Beard?! Hideo Kojima Opens New Studio
Working with PlayStation, though
Hideo Kojima, a legend in the eyes of those who live on the virtual battlefield, has indeed parted ways with Konami and founded his own new PMC (private makegames company). The Metal Gear maestro has even managed to sneak his old studio name out of Konami. All year we've heard about a falling-out of some sort between the designer and the publishers, so it was pretty clear he was going, and Konami even blocked him from accepting an award this month for MGS V.
Well, as of today, he's out, he's gone, and he's at a new Kojima Productions. Also, he's grown a cracking new beard for that 'grizzled veteran' look.
Oh, but don't go bouncing up and down in your seat just yet. With the doors only just open, Kojima announced that their first game "is a collaboration with PlayStation". An eternal optimist might say that they're just ruling out Xbox and whatever it is they're making could come to PC but oh, I don't know if I have that much hope in me. It's been a good eleven months since I was last visited by ghosts of the past, present, and future to teach me the error of my ways, see.
Update: It's a Christmas miracle! Their game, whatever it is, will indeed come to PC after PS4. I am ALIVE. I am ALIVE and I BELIEVE.
Quite what happened between Kojima and Konami, we'll probably never officially hear from either.
Still, do check out Kojima's statement on the studio's site for word on the studio, new playful species of human, and fabulously Kojima declarations like:
"Even if the earth were stripped of life and reduced to a barren wasteland, our imagination and desire to create would survive - beyond survival, it would provide hope that flowers may one day bloom again. Through the invention of play, our new evolution awaits."
And here's that PlayStation vid, if you've missed his face (rockin' that renegade beard!):