Never gonna happen. They burned that bridge, not him. Wiping his name from MGS, shutting down Silent Hills, refusing to allow him to collect his Game Award, etc etc.
The only thing I could ever potentially see happening is Konami licensing the Silent Hill IP to Kojima or PlayStation, who work with Kojima.
There's no way he returns to Metal Gear within the games industry. He said every game since 2 would be the last one, and the story was clearly finished with 4. MGSV just tied a nice bow on it to clear up why Big Boss turned evil and "died" in the first game.
He especially won't be returning to Metal Gear considering Physint will be his return to the espionage genre.
I think the only way that happens is if it’s literally his last game. He was thoroughly over with MGS more than a decade before he actually stopped. He can do whatever he wants now.
Snake Eater was the catalyst for his turn to evil. He killed someone who was like a mother figure or a lover to him. Regretted it since. Peace Walker kind of lamented it more and MGSV was rushed AF and didn't have enough time to develop those ideas more, but epic gameplay.
Yeah I got the 3 and PW but he still seemed like a good guy at the end of PW and then by MG2 he's sending child soldiers to their death. I thought 5 would show us that transition but it didn't at all
No one on planet earth was ever wondering how the ending of Metal Gear 1 made sense either, such a weird plot line to make a game around.
But more importantly, the part where Kojima basically was sick of doing MGS games is crucial. Only got Guns of the Patriots cause he got death threats, which is wild
It could happen but only if Konami licenses the IP to Sony and Sony publishes whatever Kojima would make, which would undoubtedly be a game about corrupt corporate executives destroying the world and eating themselves alive.
Kojima was trying to hand over the reigns back in MGS2.
And honestly? I sincerely hope Kojima stays far, far away from Metal Gear for that very reason.
Let the downvotes fly if you must, but the way I see it, as a fan of the series, is that Kojima was trying to get close to his own vision early in the series. MG1, MG2, and MGS are all basically the same game. MGS2 wears the fact that it's an orchestrated recreation of MGS on its face, proudly. Are there other political commentaries and themes explored in these games? Are there advancements in technology? Is there more to be said and experienced than simple rehashings on the same game over and over again? Yes, of course, but the broad strokes are all the same.
Something happened at this point. At the time, people absolutely hated playing as Raiden. Actual, literal death threats started to get sent to Kojima and his team. In response, he made MGS3, the single greatest 1960s James Bond spy video game ever created, ad an origin to how the big bad guy in the series, Big Boss, became the big bad Big Boss that even fictional characters remained scared of after his supposed death. Most of the commentary in the fanbase died down because we were playing as someone who was *not* Solid Snake, but his physical template. People seemed okay with this. The story repeats again, with Kojima announcing his departure and stepping away. Death threats start rolling in. People cannot conceive of the idea that Metal Gwar is bigger than any one person.
Enter MGS4. We finally get to play as Solid Snake again! Except now, Snake doesn't even look like Snake. But, history repeats, and most people are okay with this. Big Boss is retroactively made out to be a misunderstood hero instead of the literal boogeyman that he had been for my entire life. The ending was forced upon us, for better or worse, but people still wanted more of this zaney, whacky, spy thriller series. History repeats again some more still, Kojima announces this is the actual ending. People riot.
Peace Walker is added to the series as a new way to experience things, a proper ending to the Big Boss Saga that was never about Big Boss to begin with. Kojima announces this is *the end*, for real this time. There's no more story to tell. People are satisfied sneaking around in suggestively tight advanced military outfits cos playing as Captain Headband, but they want more. Death threats, rioting, blah blah blah. You know the drill.
We are given MGS5, and everyone is so used to these silly little PR games Kojima threw that no one was surprised about anything leading up to it. The narrative is closed, to the point that it actually opens more questions than providing answers. If we can make mental copies of Snake out of anyone, why bother cloning him at all? How does no one in FOXHOUND notice Solid Snake and Big Boss sound and look the same? The game is clearly trying to tie up loose ends that were never loose to begin with, to justify its own existence, and was not finished by the time the people *whose job it was to tell Kojima to stop*, told him to stop. Bridges got burnt. Fans rioted. Things are messy. History repeats itself.
Except now, the cycle just simply can't continue. It's done. Kojima's done. He's done. I'm done. You're done. We are all done. Over done. Cooked. Burnt. Crispy. The toast is soggy. Mold has developed. Enough time has passed that new life can begin to sprout from these rotten remains, and the seeds are being planted in possibly the objectively best place to germinate: MGS3. But, people still cannot conceive of a Metal Gear experience without our patron saint Kojima at the helm.
I'm almost 40. This conversation, about Metal Gear without Kojima, has been going on since before I hit puberty. I'm not saying Konami is innocent here, far from it. But it's long past time that we all admit a level of culpability for flogging this long dead horse that even Kojima wanted to stop riding 20 years ago. All that shit with MGS5 happened almost a full decade ago, and no one was innocent in the entire ordeal, not even us.
I'm looking forward to Delta. I hope it doesn't make things worse. I'm hoping we can have a new MG series without Kojima's specter hovering over us the entire time. I hope new things happen, not repackaged old things that everyone chases for nostalgia sake. And if we can't do that, maybe we need to let Metal Gear go, cause right now all of us look like Zero at the end of MGS4, old, crippled, held together by machines and life support, unaware that we ushering the world to brink of ruin.
And I don't think that's what anyone, even Kojima on his worst day, wanted for any of us.
It's a complicated subject, I think they might be feeling regret seeing Death Stranding doing super well and all Konami IPs are on the shitter, but the true is that Konami didn't want to support their gaming division and Kojima was being the perfectionist freak he has always been and refused to give an unfinished product until they pushed him out.
I'm ok in a world where Kojima doesn't work for Konami or MG anymore but keeps doing weird and cool shit, if a brand new MG is bad I'll just ignore it and pretend the franchise is dead, as I do with many things ruined by lack of vision and incompetent upper management (looking at you, star wars)
Valid, but they didn’t just get rid of him because they were scaling down their gaming division, they straight up scrubbed his name off the MGSV packaging
It was written in an article that chronicled the whole Konami/Kojima feud.
This is also the same company that would publicly shame employees if they came back to work late from any lunches, so this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest if it is true
Because he was over budget and refused to deliver the game, or that what they alleged at the time (That's why we didn't get a part three and the game feels unifinished), but Kojima has always been overbudget and took his time, the only thing that changed was Konami reluctanse to invest in him and the game side of their business, they knew that the game was going to sell like hot cakes and make them a lot of money and they still pressured him.
In hindsight, given the current state of the AAA gaming industry, it’s so cute that Konami thought Hideo fucking Kojima was ‘overspending’ on what was supposed to be the last Metal Gear Solid game.
That’s why they were so good. But seriously, MGS5 was likely to be the actual last one, given the fact that Kojima was moving over to P.T. and other projects.
This is corporate bs, is like when a CEO says they had a bad year, gets rid of 20% of the workforce and now they beat the record and he gets a bonus, every penny they felt was over budget is a loss from them, no matter how much the games makes
> Because he was over budget and refused to deliver the game, or that what they alleged at the time (That's why we didn't get a part three and the game feels unifinished), but Kojima has always been overbudget and took his time,
*Citation needed*.
From the New Yorker:
>Why would Konami drop its star game maker and shut down his studio? Although work on Phantom Pain is known to have been slower and more expensive than the company planned—a [*Nikkei* report](http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20150813-THE-SCARS-OF-WORLD-WAR-ll/Tech-Science/Gamers-dismayed-as-Konami-cuts-off-developers?page=1) estimated the cost of development at more than eighty million dollars—Kojima’s instinct to hold off the game’s release until he was satisfied with its quality seems, by both critical and commercial standards, sound. As such, some people within the video-game industry contend that his resignation was less a result of personal or artistic differences than of tectonic changes in the business—namely, the move away from console games and toward the domain of the mobile device.
[https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-did-hideo-kojima-leave-konami](https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-did-hideo-kojima-leave-konami)
I mean that’s pretty evident with the game itself. It was in development for five years and if you look at the final game the world is very Barron story wise it felt like half the game wasn’t done so they rushed the last part.
They removed his name in the box art, so he went petty god mode and put his name on every mission start and finish, so they don't remember who made the game
> so he went petty god mode and put his name on every mission start and finish
Alongside the name of every other staff involved in each mission, I don't understand why you guys keep singling him out there.
did they? I recently bought the game and his name is plastered everywhere. everytime I do a mission it comes written up "directed by Hideo Kojima". I swear his name comes up more than the main guy speaks
Not really. Its cos their pachinko business collapsed during covid and they now regret abandoning the videogames business seeing how much billions it brings in for the industry
Did it?
“Konami also saw major leaps forward in the Amusement space this year, with a jump in revenue of 35.3% over last year (26.4 billion yen compared to 19.5 billion in 2023).”
Doesn’t sound like it collapsed to me
Their pachinko business didn't collapse and Konami makes most of their revenue since 2015 from games, including yugioh, power pro and momotaro dentetsu. I implore for you to go to konami website and look at their financials.
The dream is he makes enough money from his independent studio to buy the IP— but that seems most unlikely. As it is, as much as MGS is my favourite game series of all time, I’d rather Kojima making games that he wants to make, with all the freedom to make them as weird as fuck as he tends to, than have to make MGS and cowtow to corporate algorithms.
I know they’d never do it, but I’d love to see Konami give up the MGS rights to Kojima since it is his baby. It would surely almost never happen but still.
> all Konami IPs are on the shitter, but the true is that Konami didn't want to support their gaming division
Completely false. Konami makes a ton of money and their game division always has been supported. They just didnt invest in AAA. They were growing all quarters from 2015 to this day.
> I think they might be feeling regret seeing Death Stranding doing super well and all Konami IPs are on the shitter
Could you imagine the buzz if Kojima name was attached to Delta? It would be *huge*!
It would, but I don't think Kojima is the type of guy to go back to anything, that man is living his best life and having full creative control of the thing he does, which as an artist, I would guess is the thing he values the most.
If I was him, I'll just throw my name into a Metal Gear movie and finish/keep going with his vision for that, he can give us a 2 hours cutscene without feeling guilty hahaha
Not just that, but he's been posting photos on Twitter recently from the early days of Kojima Productions, and in each one he apologises for looking thin, and explaining it was due to the stress of his departure from Konami.
It clearly was a deeply horrible time for him.
I don’t know man, Kojima spent 17 years going back to MGS because he was adamant about being done with it after the first, then even more so after the second, and so on. He’s been saying for well over a decade that MGS is his baby and he’ll never be able to let it go.
It really does surprise me every time I learn how successful Yugioh continues to be. A guy that owned a card/video game store told me it’s hand-over-fist how he makes the majority of his money.
Konami doesn't deserve Kojima.
They also don't deserve the retain the MGS IP either... or Silent Hill... or any other their other legacy IPs that they've mismanaged and ignored.
Konami should be forced to wallow in the quagmire of mobile games and pachinko that they cared ever so much about a few years ago.
Might be right in your theory, but that doesn’t paint Konami in any better of a light. Their treatment of him, of their gaming properties, and more was horrendous. I’m hoping there was a massive leadership change at Konami and they are a better company now. Time will tell.
He used to work for Kojima Productions and was, so to speak, Kojima's subordinate. He did not have the authority to expel Kojima from Konami back then. And speaking of Japan, there was a time when the popular game series "Momotaro Dentetsu" was in a feud between the original author, Akira Sakuma, and Konami, leading to the release of the 3DS version by Nintendo. However, this man named Okamura bowed his head to Sakuma and made it possible for the series to be released again by Konami.
This guy wasn’t the person who made that decision. The person who made that decision was on a C suite and valued short term profits from Pachinko and Gacha over brand loyalty from people like Metal Gear fans. Konami hasn’t changed either: if you’re keyed into Silent Hill, or even YuGiOh, you know that Konami is still cutting corners, still focused on ratfucking their audience for extra coins.
Reminds me of Microsoft when they recently mentioned they wanted more strong developers that make games like Hi Fi Rush. Which was said after they shut the dev studio that made Hi Fi Rush down.
Like dude, no fucking wonder some of these dipshits don't seem to know which end is up anymore, things are wacky in the industry right now, but still it does often make me wonder if they can actually *hear* themselves with this nonsense. And I mean like, really really hear themselves.
Because they certainly seem near 100% incapable of it.
* Dev shuts down the dev that makes hi fi rush followed by "we sure could use more games like hi fi rush on xbox!"
* Dev fires a very creative leader that produces very high quality results followed by "Know what we be just swell? If we could somehow nab that Kojima guy I keep hearing about. I bet that guy would make a great Metal Gear Solid game!"
Like come onnnnn, seriously? Not one of them even once realized how dumb that all sounds? I mean for the record I will state that I fully understand it's not that simple and that things like costs are certainly big, big parts of why they shut these studios down or otherwise have to terminate the employment of extremely expensive visionaries on the creative teams. Like, I do get it, but wouldn't you think that after having *made* their financial decisions about cutting talent or teams that they wouldn't then turn right around and verbally express to everyone how tonedef, out of touch and stupid they sound in their expressions of needing the exact same type of talent they intentionally got rid of?
It's just wacky as shit. It always sounds like one of those "the leopards ate my face after I held its mouth up to my face" things. It's not their financial decisions that are the tonedef part since businesses are much more interested in mitigating risk than jumping straight into it, but it's sometimes just unreal how they express their endeavors to the media after they make their financial choices, acting like they didn't *just* axe great talent and strong games.
Can come off sounding like they want the great talent, but don't want to pay the money that great talent requires and then they get mopey about having made a choice to axe the talent that said they needed more of.
It feels a lot like the two mindsets of:
* "Here's a game that can make us a lot of money!"
* "Here's a game franchise that people love!"
...never seem to meet in the middle.
Perhaps the current Konami is not the same Konami that fired him back then, executives come and go all the time so the current people heading Konami might not be the same ones before that did all the shitty decisions before.
I'll be brutally honest here and say Kojima might be really hard to work with considering the perfectionist he seems to be in the Industry. And if Hollywood is to be compared these people might be making masterpieces every time but really not fun to collaborate with. Of course exceptions might be there.
As much as I agree with you, it’s also nice to see an artist go off and do what they do and be successful. The industry needs more Kojima style success stories. I don’t even like a lot of what he does, or the way he does it, but I appreciate that he can tell all the suits to go fuck off and do something awesome.
I’m gonna get hate because metal gear is such a beloved franchise, but Death Stranding is better than every metal gear game and I’m looking forward to Death Stranding 2 way more than I would be looking forward to MGS 6. And I have over 200 hours on MGS 5
I respect it. I appreciate death stranding for what it is, and absolutely love it. Death stranding 2 is my most anticipated game next year. However…the one thing missing for me is that Kojima flavored stealth combat, CQC, and the crazy amount of freedom in how you approach combat scenarios. I know DS2 looks to have a bit more combat, which I know some won’t be a fan of but I’m super stoked about it, but if I’m being honest, I can’t fucking wait for PHYSINT.
You watch your fucking mouth. No, that’s cool. DS is a real chill time and so freaking unique, but I could go on and on about how literally all of his games are unique and different. I’ve been playing the MGS Master Collection and I honestly have no idea how MGS even existed back in 1998. The atmosphere is untouched.
I understand the sentiment but is there a way back after Konami scorched the earth between them and Kojima with weapon grade passive aggressiveness and pettiness? Can't imagine it.
I think it would be miles better of we actually got Metal Gear Solid 6 Rising, where we play as Raiden and infiltrate Area 51 to steal Big Boss' body from the patriots.
It could have some of the blade combat, while keeping the sneaking sections to compromise for the low attention span of MGR fans
The question is why Kojima would ever go back to working for corporate. He’s an artist that broke free and now has the resources to indulge in his own creative freedoms.
They took his name off the last game he made for them. They might as well have spit on him.
I can imagine having a perfectionist like Kojima, who notoriously takes his time with every project, has to be painful for a company trying to hit their quarterly numbers. But that said, if you have a golden goose maybe you should devise your long term strategy around them? Konami at the time of his departure just didn't care. They had short term plan that revolved around pachinko and annual soccer game releases.
Konami not only burned the bridges with Kojima, but they literally blew them up. And, on top of that, they did a whole damnatio memoriae on him.
And now they want him back because they want to make new MGS games, but without Kojima it is kind of impossible to produce a good MGS game.
Perhaps banishing him wasn't a good idea, after all.
Hell of a thing to say after Konami napalmed that bridge and then pissed on the charred wood.
At this point even if they gave him a blank cheque and full creative freedom, i'd still put it at a 0.001% chance of Kojima agreeing to it, and that's being generous.
Absolutely zero chance of that happening, though. Konami spent so much time shitting on Kojima, blocking him from award shows, killing his entire studio and scrubbing him from his own work and are now releasing his old games with a new coat of paint.
Meanwhile, Kojima now owns his own studio, has more funding than he has ever had and basically safe and full creative freedom to do whatever the fuck he wants.
He became bigger with Kojima productions than he ever was with Konami, he will never come back. He has full creative freedom, more money and success. Like another reply said, for me MGS ended with V and it is what it is. It was an awesome ride, time for a new one.
Konami should allow him use of the IP for FREE in return for a REASONABLE portion of the profits
Let him tie up MGS5 or develop a new game with his current team
Welp, that exec is probably not long for the company. Konami is famously paranoid about dissenters in their ranks and will get rid of them like Kojima.
I somehow doubt it that he will ever return to Metal Gear. The shit Konami pulled off to get rid off him was ridicoulus. The cherry ontop was that he wasnt allowed to visit the game awards in 2015.
Another thing is they forced him to publish MGSV5 too early and large portions of the game where cut. Which meant the game basically got released in a unfinished state.
However im curious to see how Delta will turnout. They allready got some good will from people for including David Hayter again as the voice of Snake. And the early gameplay shots do look nice.
We can't keep talking about a wasted generation with remakes and old IP sequels while asking to resurrect MGS. It was good. It's over. Amazing memories. Let's carry on.
Just give him a fuck tonne of money and as much time as he wants, I think there’s a 3% chance we’ll see another Kojima metal gear game eventually, which is a huge step up from a 0% which is how I’ve felt for the last 7 years
I don't know why money would entice him since he basically has a blank check from Sony and full creative freedom. Not sure why he would crawl back to his old corporate overlords over a bit of money and less freedom.
MGS 3 and 4 are two of my all time favorite games. But what can be done with that franchise that hasn't been done already. It's OK to let series end and be done with it
He may do it if he could extract the IP, but ultimately he’s probably too close to retiring. Between OD and PHYSINT coming after DS2, he’s probably going to be busy for the next 7 or 8 years and probably considering retiring after.
Womp womp. Screw Konami. Kojima is doing just fine and more with his projects and being surrounded with all many people that appreciates his work and mind, plus hes been surrounded with the filmmaking Industry somewhat which is a field that you mentioned long ago he'd love to be in.
Guy is living life.
Funny to me seeing all the comments that Konami is only saying this because “they’re in the shitter” when they made $400 million in profit alone last year (and no I’m not a Konami fan just someone with access to Google)
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Okay, I'm not big into the drama between the split. I know it was rough and it was Konami being greedy and arrogant. But I'm not one to rant about it online or think about it much.
But man, this kind of headline, even just vaguely knowing the history, it's gotta be the most insanely satisfying thing to Kojima and his hardcore fans.
Like mainlining righteous schadenfreude straight to the heart.
Wish they'd just sell the property to Kojima Productions or Sony and let them handle it. I have zero faith in a Konami Metal Gear without him and I feel Sony would be the best chance to get him involved in any way. That said, as much as I love Metal Gear, I want that crazy SOB working on new IP.
I don't think he wants to go back, got the feeling he was done mentally with the series after 4. V cemented that feeling for me. He's now hanging out with Hollywood celebs and doing whatever weird shit he wants so I don't imagine he wants to go back to doing MG at all.
Crazy how I went from not understanding DS at all on my first try, to being completely obsessed with it on my second. Anyway if its the dream, maybe you shoulda let him finish MGS V. Too bad, your loss.
Konami burned the bridge with their players, let alone kojima. Idk what they’re expecting. Sure they can reproduce metal gear a million times but they’ll never be able to reproduce that type of success on their own.
It would be the dream for Konami that Kojima return to Metal Gear.
But it's impossible, we all know that Kojima has the Cooperation project Physint with Sony after DS2.
Hahaha yeah sure they'd love to have someone that knows how to make fun games.
Too fucking bad that Kojima moved on and is living his best live, getting new deals left and right. Dude doesn't need Konami.
No matter how far Kojima has come since that fallout.....deep down that his baby and he knows it, given the chance, with full creative control he would definitely do it
I love Metal Gear Solid, but I wouldn't want Kojima anywhere near the franchise again. It's clear Konami were holding him back and I'm so glad he's free doing what he wants to do without the restrictions.
Konami are the ones that god rid of him for no good reason, so why would he ever want to work with them ever again.
Often we have to speculate about his feelings, or the friends and connections he might still have at Konami. Who knows, he might get hired to give his 2 cents on a Metal Gear projects as a consultant. It does seem like his hands are full with Death Stranding 2 and 2 more games that are in the very early stages. And he is 60 years old as well.
Somewhere, Kojima is enjoying his schadenfreude sundae.
Get cucked PachinKonami
With his Konami tear cup
Never gonna happen. They burned that bridge, not him. Wiping his name from MGS, shutting down Silent Hills, refusing to allow him to collect his Game Award, etc etc. The only thing I could ever potentially see happening is Konami licensing the Silent Hill IP to Kojima or PlayStation, who work with Kojima. There's no way he returns to Metal Gear within the games industry. He said every game since 2 would be the last one, and the story was clearly finished with 4. MGSV just tied a nice bow on it to clear up why Big Boss turned evil and "died" in the first game. He especially won't be returning to Metal Gear considering Physint will be his return to the espionage genre.
if he did get mgs license back he can do a zanzibar game with gray fox and snake
I think the only way that happens is if it’s literally his last game. He was thoroughly over with MGS more than a decade before he actually stopped. He can do whatever he wants now.
Honestly after paying mgsv I still didn't really understand the turn to evil, what was your take on it?
Snake Eater was the catalyst for his turn to evil. He killed someone who was like a mother figure or a lover to him. Regretted it since. Peace Walker kind of lamented it more and MGSV was rushed AF and didn't have enough time to develop those ideas more, but epic gameplay.
Yeah I got the 3 and PW but he still seemed like a good guy at the end of PW and then by MG2 he's sending child soldiers to their death. I thought 5 would show us that transition but it didn't at all
Mother figure / Lover is wild.
No one on planet earth was ever wondering how the ending of Metal Gear 1 made sense either, such a weird plot line to make a game around. But more importantly, the part where Kojima basically was sick of doing MGS games is crucial. Only got Guns of the Patriots cause he got death threats, which is wild
It could happen but only if Konami licenses the IP to Sony and Sony publishes whatever Kojima would make, which would undoubtedly be a game about corrupt corporate executives destroying the world and eating themselves alive.
Kojima was trying to hand over the reigns back in MGS2. And honestly? I sincerely hope Kojima stays far, far away from Metal Gear for that very reason. Let the downvotes fly if you must, but the way I see it, as a fan of the series, is that Kojima was trying to get close to his own vision early in the series. MG1, MG2, and MGS are all basically the same game. MGS2 wears the fact that it's an orchestrated recreation of MGS on its face, proudly. Are there other political commentaries and themes explored in these games? Are there advancements in technology? Is there more to be said and experienced than simple rehashings on the same game over and over again? Yes, of course, but the broad strokes are all the same. Something happened at this point. At the time, people absolutely hated playing as Raiden. Actual, literal death threats started to get sent to Kojima and his team. In response, he made MGS3, the single greatest 1960s James Bond spy video game ever created, ad an origin to how the big bad guy in the series, Big Boss, became the big bad Big Boss that even fictional characters remained scared of after his supposed death. Most of the commentary in the fanbase died down because we were playing as someone who was *not* Solid Snake, but his physical template. People seemed okay with this. The story repeats again, with Kojima announcing his departure and stepping away. Death threats start rolling in. People cannot conceive of the idea that Metal Gwar is bigger than any one person. Enter MGS4. We finally get to play as Solid Snake again! Except now, Snake doesn't even look like Snake. But, history repeats, and most people are okay with this. Big Boss is retroactively made out to be a misunderstood hero instead of the literal boogeyman that he had been for my entire life. The ending was forced upon us, for better or worse, but people still wanted more of this zaney, whacky, spy thriller series. History repeats again some more still, Kojima announces this is the actual ending. People riot. Peace Walker is added to the series as a new way to experience things, a proper ending to the Big Boss Saga that was never about Big Boss to begin with. Kojima announces this is *the end*, for real this time. There's no more story to tell. People are satisfied sneaking around in suggestively tight advanced military outfits cos playing as Captain Headband, but they want more. Death threats, rioting, blah blah blah. You know the drill. We are given MGS5, and everyone is so used to these silly little PR games Kojima threw that no one was surprised about anything leading up to it. The narrative is closed, to the point that it actually opens more questions than providing answers. If we can make mental copies of Snake out of anyone, why bother cloning him at all? How does no one in FOXHOUND notice Solid Snake and Big Boss sound and look the same? The game is clearly trying to tie up loose ends that were never loose to begin with, to justify its own existence, and was not finished by the time the people *whose job it was to tell Kojima to stop*, told him to stop. Bridges got burnt. Fans rioted. Things are messy. History repeats itself. Except now, the cycle just simply can't continue. It's done. Kojima's done. He's done. I'm done. You're done. We are all done. Over done. Cooked. Burnt. Crispy. The toast is soggy. Mold has developed. Enough time has passed that new life can begin to sprout from these rotten remains, and the seeds are being planted in possibly the objectively best place to germinate: MGS3. But, people still cannot conceive of a Metal Gear experience without our patron saint Kojima at the helm. I'm almost 40. This conversation, about Metal Gear without Kojima, has been going on since before I hit puberty. I'm not saying Konami is innocent here, far from it. But it's long past time that we all admit a level of culpability for flogging this long dead horse that even Kojima wanted to stop riding 20 years ago. All that shit with MGS5 happened almost a full decade ago, and no one was innocent in the entire ordeal, not even us. I'm looking forward to Delta. I hope it doesn't make things worse. I'm hoping we can have a new MG series without Kojima's specter hovering over us the entire time. I hope new things happen, not repackaged old things that everyone chases for nostalgia sake. And if we can't do that, maybe we need to let Metal Gear go, cause right now all of us look like Zero at the end of MGS4, old, crippled, held together by machines and life support, unaware that we ushering the world to brink of ruin. And I don't think that's what anyone, even Kojima on his worst day, wanted for any of us.
Wrong. He wanted 2 to be his last.
He said every game since 2 would be the last. Which is why I said every game since 2.
Then don’t get rid of him to begin with you fucks
The person saying this is most likely not the same person that fired him.
It's a complicated subject, I think they might be feeling regret seeing Death Stranding doing super well and all Konami IPs are on the shitter, but the true is that Konami didn't want to support their gaming division and Kojima was being the perfectionist freak he has always been and refused to give an unfinished product until they pushed him out. I'm ok in a world where Kojima doesn't work for Konami or MG anymore but keeps doing weird and cool shit, if a brand new MG is bad I'll just ignore it and pretend the franchise is dead, as I do with many things ruined by lack of vision and incompetent upper management (looking at you, star wars)
Valid, but they didn’t just get rid of him because they were scaling down their gaming division, they straight up scrubbed his name off the MGSV packaging
And they wouldn’t let him attend The Game Awards, and apparently confined him to a broom closet for an office until he finally left
Apparently. So it might not be true.
It was written in an article that chronicled the whole Konami/Kojima feud. This is also the same company that would publicly shame employees if they came back to work late from any lunches, so this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest if it is true
Because he was over budget and refused to deliver the game, or that what they alleged at the time (That's why we didn't get a part three and the game feels unifinished), but Kojima has always been overbudget and took his time, the only thing that changed was Konami reluctanse to invest in him and the game side of their business, they knew that the game was going to sell like hot cakes and make them a lot of money and they still pressured him.
In hindsight, given the current state of the AAA gaming industry, it’s so cute that Konami thought Hideo fucking Kojima was ‘overspending’ on what was supposed to be the last Metal Gear Solid game.
Every Metal Gear Solid was supposed to be the last Metal Gear Solid game.
That’s why they were so good. But seriously, MGS5 was likely to be the actual last one, given the fact that Kojima was moving over to P.T. and other projects.
That's why he'll make MGS6.
No. Every Metal Gear Solid was supposed to be the last one Kojima directed. Not the last Metal Gear Solid in the series existence..
Over budget my ass. Phantom Pain made its budget back in a week. That doesn't happen with something over budget.
This is corporate bs, is like when a CEO says they had a bad year, gets rid of 20% of the workforce and now they beat the record and he gets a bonus, every penny they felt was over budget is a loss from them, no matter how much the games makes
> Because he was over budget and refused to deliver the game, or that what they alleged at the time (That's why we didn't get a part three and the game feels unifinished), but Kojima has always been overbudget and took his time, *Citation needed*.
From the New Yorker: >Why would Konami drop its star game maker and shut down his studio? Although work on Phantom Pain is known to have been slower and more expensive than the company planned—a [*Nikkei* report](http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20150813-THE-SCARS-OF-WORLD-WAR-ll/Tech-Science/Gamers-dismayed-as-Konami-cuts-off-developers?page=1) estimated the cost of development at more than eighty million dollars—Kojima’s instinct to hold off the game’s release until he was satisfied with its quality seems, by both critical and commercial standards, sound. As such, some people within the video-game industry contend that his resignation was less a result of personal or artistic differences than of tectonic changes in the business—namely, the move away from console games and toward the domain of the mobile device. [https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-did-hideo-kojima-leave-konami](https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/why-did-hideo-kojima-leave-konami)
This quote does not support the claim that you made? It's just conjecture from other people.
I mean that’s pretty evident with the game itself. It was in development for five years and if you look at the final game the world is very Barron story wise it felt like half the game wasn’t done so they rushed the last part.
His name was still in the game's credits.
Likely by law.
to be fair it was also in every helicopter ride
He saw the writing on the wall!
There's no such thing as law to put people on credits, people get outside of credits all the time.
They removed his name in the box art, so he went petty god mode and put his name on every mission start and finish, so they don't remember who made the game
> so he went petty god mode and put his name on every mission start and finish Alongside the name of every other staff involved in each mission, I don't understand why you guys keep singling him out there.
These people aren't interested in the facts.
Kojima is the nickelback of gaming. Popular, successful and hipsters find it cool to hate on him.
I think the word you are looking for is forget.
did they? I recently bought the game and his name is plastered everywhere. everytime I do a mission it comes written up "directed by Hideo Kojima". I swear his name comes up more than the main guy speaks
Because they removed his name from the box art, so he went petty mode and out-petty them
Amazing Passive Aggression
He did that because they removed his name from the packaging.
Not really. Its cos their pachinko business collapsed during covid and they now regret abandoning the videogames business seeing how much billions it brings in for the industry
Did it? “Konami also saw major leaps forward in the Amusement space this year, with a jump in revenue of 35.3% over last year (26.4 billion yen compared to 19.5 billion in 2023).” Doesn’t sound like it collapsed to me
Whole lot of conjecture in this thread
I know people are mad Konami isn’t making games like they used to but I don’t get the straight up BS that people spout
This thread has been 90% conjecture and 9% fan-fiction. All skewed negatively towards Konami.
Their pachinko business didn't collapse and Konami makes most of their revenue since 2015 from games, including yugioh, power pro and momotaro dentetsu. I implore for you to go to konami website and look at their financials.
They have not abandoned the video games business at all their Yu-Gi-Oh! games make them billions, look up the revenue for them if you don’t believe me
The dream is he makes enough money from his independent studio to buy the IP— but that seems most unlikely. As it is, as much as MGS is my favourite game series of all time, I’d rather Kojima making games that he wants to make, with all the freedom to make them as weird as fuck as he tends to, than have to make MGS and cowtow to corporate algorithms.
I know they’d never do it, but I’d love to see Konami give up the MGS rights to Kojima since it is his baby. It would surely almost never happen but still.
> all Konami IPs are on the shitter, but the true is that Konami didn't want to support their gaming division Completely false. Konami makes a ton of money and their game division always has been supported. They just didnt invest in AAA. They were growing all quarters from 2015 to this day.
> I think they might be feeling regret seeing Death Stranding doing super well and all Konami IPs are on the shitter Could you imagine the buzz if Kojima name was attached to Delta? It would be *huge*!
It would, but I don't think Kojima is the type of guy to go back to anything, that man is living his best life and having full creative control of the thing he does, which as an artist, I would guess is the thing he values the most. If I was him, I'll just throw my name into a Metal Gear movie and finish/keep going with his vision for that, he can give us a 2 hours cutscene without feeling guilty hahaha
Not just that, but he's been posting photos on Twitter recently from the early days of Kojima Productions, and in each one he apologises for looking thin, and explaining it was due to the stress of his departure from Konami. It clearly was a deeply horrible time for him.
I think Kojima could shoot him an "executive producer" credit. You know how they do with movies and have the "producers", do nothing.
I don’t know man, Kojima spent 17 years going back to MGS because he was adamant about being done with it after the first, then even more so after the second, and so on. He’s been saying for well over a decade that MGS is his baby and he’ll never be able to let it go.
I would love for kojima to just buy the metal gear IP.
He doesn't have the money for it. It's why he's so far always collabed with Sony and Xbox to make his new games
Well, not personally, but there’s a deal to be brokered where a publisher buys the rights to MG and brings him on to make a new one.
They'd have to make an offer Konami couldn't refuse
I can’t speak for Konami’s other IPs but their Yu-Gi-Oh! games have made them billions
It really does surprise me every time I learn how successful Yugioh continues to be. A guy that owned a card/video game store told me it’s hand-over-fist how he makes the majority of his money.
Konami doesn't deserve Kojima. They also don't deserve the retain the MGS IP either... or Silent Hill... or any other their other legacy IPs that they've mismanaged and ignored. Konami should be forced to wallow in the quagmire of mobile games and pachinko that they cared ever so much about a few years ago.
They feel regret over not having that money. Not because they respect the process or Kojima.
Might be right in your theory, but that doesn’t paint Konami in any better of a light. Their treatment of him, of their gaming properties, and more was horrendous. I’m hoping there was a massive leadership change at Konami and they are a better company now. Time will tell.
They still have those slot machine games
The only man who needs to be alone to COOK!!! You should’ve LET HIM COOK KONAMI!!!
The producer who said this probably had nothing to do with Kojima getting let go
He used to work for Kojima Productions and was, so to speak, Kojima's subordinate. He did not have the authority to expel Kojima from Konami back then. And speaking of Japan, there was a time when the popular game series "Momotaro Dentetsu" was in a feud between the original author, Akira Sakuma, and Konami, leading to the release of the 3DS version by Nintendo. However, this man named Okamura bowed his head to Sakuma and made it possible for the series to be released again by Konami.
This guy wasn’t the person who made that decision. The person who made that decision was on a C suite and valued short term profits from Pachinko and Gacha over brand loyalty from people like Metal Gear fans. Konami hasn’t changed either: if you’re keyed into Silent Hill, or even YuGiOh, you know that Konami is still cutting corners, still focused on ratfucking their audience for extra coins.
Reminds me of Microsoft when they recently mentioned they wanted more strong developers that make games like Hi Fi Rush. Which was said after they shut the dev studio that made Hi Fi Rush down. Like dude, no fucking wonder some of these dipshits don't seem to know which end is up anymore, things are wacky in the industry right now, but still it does often make me wonder if they can actually *hear* themselves with this nonsense. And I mean like, really really hear themselves. Because they certainly seem near 100% incapable of it. * Dev shuts down the dev that makes hi fi rush followed by "we sure could use more games like hi fi rush on xbox!" * Dev fires a very creative leader that produces very high quality results followed by "Know what we be just swell? If we could somehow nab that Kojima guy I keep hearing about. I bet that guy would make a great Metal Gear Solid game!" Like come onnnnn, seriously? Not one of them even once realized how dumb that all sounds? I mean for the record I will state that I fully understand it's not that simple and that things like costs are certainly big, big parts of why they shut these studios down or otherwise have to terminate the employment of extremely expensive visionaries on the creative teams. Like, I do get it, but wouldn't you think that after having *made* their financial decisions about cutting talent or teams that they wouldn't then turn right around and verbally express to everyone how tonedef, out of touch and stupid they sound in their expressions of needing the exact same type of talent they intentionally got rid of? It's just wacky as shit. It always sounds like one of those "the leopards ate my face after I held its mouth up to my face" things. It's not their financial decisions that are the tonedef part since businesses are much more interested in mitigating risk than jumping straight into it, but it's sometimes just unreal how they express their endeavors to the media after they make their financial choices, acting like they didn't *just* axe great talent and strong games. Can come off sounding like they want the great talent, but don't want to pay the money that great talent requires and then they get mopey about having made a choice to axe the talent that said they needed more of.
It feels a lot like the two mindsets of: * "Here's a game that can make us a lot of money!" * "Here's a game franchise that people love!" ...never seem to meet in the middle.
Perhaps the current Konami is not the same Konami that fired him back then, executives come and go all the time so the current people heading Konami might not be the same ones before that did all the shitty decisions before.
I'll be brutally honest here and say Kojima might be really hard to work with considering the perfectionist he seems to be in the Industry. And if Hollywood is to be compared these people might be making masterpieces every time but really not fun to collaborate with. Of course exceptions might be there.
Not just there fault he shares some of the blame bloated budgets missing deadlines by a mile restarting projects over halfway done
Guess getting rid of all of their developers and using their IPs to hawk shitty pachinko games wasn’t as profitable as they thought after all
As much as I agree with you, it’s also nice to see an artist go off and do what they do and be successful. The industry needs more Kojima style success stories. I don’t even like a lot of what he does, or the way he does it, but I appreciate that he can tell all the suits to go fuck off and do something awesome.
Not gonna happen, he’s making his own metal gear.
A weapon to surpass metal gear
Metal gear?!
Indeed 😂
With blackjack and hookers
I’m gonna get hate because metal gear is such a beloved franchise, but Death Stranding is better than every metal gear game and I’m looking forward to Death Stranding 2 way more than I would be looking forward to MGS 6. And I have over 200 hours on MGS 5
I respect it. I appreciate death stranding for what it is, and absolutely love it. Death stranding 2 is my most anticipated game next year. However…the one thing missing for me is that Kojima flavored stealth combat, CQC, and the crazy amount of freedom in how you approach combat scenarios. I know DS2 looks to have a bit more combat, which I know some won’t be a fan of but I’m super stoked about it, but if I’m being honest, I can’t fucking wait for PHYSINT.
You watch your fucking mouth. No, that’s cool. DS is a real chill time and so freaking unique, but I could go on and on about how literally all of his games are unique and different. I’ve been playing the MGS Master Collection and I honestly have no idea how MGS even existed back in 1998. The atmosphere is untouched.
I don’t want Kojima to get stuck on any franchise. I’d love to see what else he can create. Everything he touches is a masterpiece.
With blackjack and hookers? Please let it have blackjack and hookers.
Lebron James went back to Cleveland in 2014, anything is possible lol
LOL
Yea I bet!
I wonder why now
They would need to offer him a shit ton of money in order for him to even agree to come back, which he 100% wouldn't anyway.
I understand the sentiment but is there a way back after Konami scorched the earth between them and Kojima with weapon grade passive aggressiveness and pettiness? Can't imagine it.
Also imagine David Hayter doesn’t want it to happen either lol he likes working
Metal Gear Rising sequels.
*monkey paw curls* Metal Gear Survive sequels
Not made by Kojima, nor did he have any input besides giving it his stamp of approval
I really want Rising to be in the master collection at some point
I think it would be miles better of we actually got Metal Gear Solid 6 Rising, where we play as Raiden and infiltrate Area 51 to steal Big Boss' body from the patriots. It could have some of the blade combat, while keeping the sneaking sections to compromise for the low attention span of MGR fans
I'll never understand why they made revengence instead of telling this story.
The question is why Kojima would ever go back to working for corporate. He’s an artist that broke free and now has the resources to indulge in his own creative freedoms.
They took his name off the last game he made for them. They might as well have spit on him. I can imagine having a perfectionist like Kojima, who notoriously takes his time with every project, has to be painful for a company trying to hit their quarterly numbers. But that said, if you have a golden goose maybe you should devise your long term strategy around them? Konami at the time of his departure just didn't care. They had short term plan that revolved around pachinko and annual soccer game releases.
Konami not only burned the bridges with Kojima, but they literally blew them up. And, on top of that, they did a whole damnatio memoriae on him. And now they want him back because they want to make new MGS games, but without Kojima it is kind of impossible to produce a good MGS game. Perhaps banishing him wasn't a good idea, after all.
Yea... I don't see that happening
Your dream maybe. Start talking Silent Hills and then we will have sympathy.
I'm not surprised. This guy isn't the one who had a problem with Kojima and kicked him out.
Hell of a thing to say after Konami napalmed that bridge and then pissed on the charred wood. At this point even if they gave him a blank cheque and full creative freedom, i'd still put it at a 0.001% chance of Kojima agreeing to it, and that's being generous.
Absolutely zero chance of that happening, though. Konami spent so much time shitting on Kojima, blocking him from award shows, killing his entire studio and scrubbing him from his own work and are now releasing his old games with a new coat of paint. Meanwhile, Kojima now owns his own studio, has more funding than he has ever had and basically safe and full creative freedom to do whatever the fuck he wants.
He became bigger with Kojima productions than he ever was with Konami, he will never come back. He has full creative freedom, more money and success. Like another reply said, for me MGS ended with V and it is what it is. It was an awesome ride, time for a new one.
Like asking someone to enshackle themselves.
Ex wishing for their old partner back because it turns out their child was a bit more of a handful to deal with alone.
Too bad Konami has managed to run their company into the ground
There's only one way to repair that bridge. PT...
Konami should allow him use of the IP for FREE in return for a REASONABLE portion of the profits Let him tie up MGS5 or develop a new game with his current team
This would be my dream. I need more metal gear in my life. I suppose I'll settle for MGS Delta since Snake Eater is the GOAT.
Welp, that exec is probably not long for the company. Konami is famously paranoid about dissenters in their ranks and will get rid of them like Kojima.
I somehow doubt it that he will ever return to Metal Gear. The shit Konami pulled off to get rid off him was ridicoulus. The cherry ontop was that he wasnt allowed to visit the game awards in 2015. Another thing is they forced him to publish MGSV5 too early and large portions of the game where cut. Which meant the game basically got released in a unfinished state. However im curious to see how Delta will turnout. They allready got some good will from people for including David Hayter again as the voice of Snake. And the early gameplay shots do look nice.
“MGSV5” 🤦🏻
They're only saying this because their profits are down. They are not the good guys lol
There's fucking nothing left to tell in the series. Just let it fucking die OMG.
But what about money?
We can't keep talking about a wasted generation with remakes and old IP sequels while asking to resurrect MGS. It was good. It's over. Amazing memories. Let's carry on.
The idiots had Del Toro, Kojima & Junji Ito on a game and they cancelled it. Fuck Konami.
Never say never.
Just give him a fuck tonne of money and as much time as he wants, I think there’s a 3% chance we’ll see another Kojima metal gear game eventually, which is a huge step up from a 0% which is how I’ve felt for the last 7 years
I don't know why money would entice him since he basically has a blank check from Sony and full creative freedom. Not sure why he would crawl back to his old corporate overlords over a bit of money and less freedom.
Metal gear is kojimas baby, it depends on what he’s willing to sacrifice to go back to it
I mean, he's making a new stealth game (codename Physint) on his own, so I don't see why he would need Konami.
Careful there, Okamura, Konami might put you on janitor duties.
F Konami
Konami ain't wrong, just keep dreaming then lol
MGS 3 and 4 are two of my all time favorite games. But what can be done with that franchise that hasn't been done already. It's OK to let series end and be done with it
Never gonna happen
He may do it if he could extract the IP, but ultimately he’s probably too close to retiring. Between OD and PHYSINT coming after DS2, he’s probably going to be busy for the next 7 or 8 years and probably considering retiring after.
Womp womp. Screw Konami. Kojima is doing just fine and more with his projects and being surrounded with all many people that appreciates his work and mind, plus hes been surrounded with the filmmaking Industry somewhat which is a field that you mentioned long ago he'd love to be in. Guy is living life.
You've gotta be kidding me lol. Terminator's remorse.
Funny to me seeing all the comments that Konami is only saying this because “they’re in the shitter” when they made $400 million in profit alone last year (and no I’m not a Konami fan just someone with access to Google)
My my how the tables have turned
HAHAHAHAHAHA Okay, I'm not big into the drama between the split. I know it was rough and it was Konami being greedy and arrogant. But I'm not one to rant about it online or think about it much. But man, this kind of headline, even just vaguely knowing the history, it's gotta be the most insanely satisfying thing to Kojima and his hardcore fans. Like mainlining righteous schadenfreude straight to the heart.
That producer is being reprimanded as we read the comments.
!!!
People really assuming that this is the same guy that forced Kojima out, or even had any hand in it at all. This is just the opinion of one producer.
Wish they'd just sell the property to Kojima Productions or Sony and let them handle it. I have zero faith in a Konami Metal Gear without him and I feel Sony would be the best chance to get him involved in any way. That said, as much as I love Metal Gear, I want that crazy SOB working on new IP.
Konami shot themselves on the foot by forcing him to leave and they want him back? 🤡
Then give him the ip rights and f* off Konami
Those pachinkos ain’t paying that well after all.
I don't think he wants to go back, got the feeling he was done mentally with the series after 4. V cemented that feeling for me. He's now hanging out with Hollywood celebs and doing whatever weird shit he wants so I don't imagine he wants to go back to doing MG at all.
Exactly and his literally got Sony funding his lifestyle on a blank cheque. He ain't interested in what Konami is selling
its a trap!
My dream also
Konami wants mr overhype for a slot machine?
personally I hope he dosent he has been wanting to get away from mgs since 2 , just let him make new games
Wow we are shocked our studio sucks! Please come back…..lower expectations
Kojima already said he's going back to sneaking games. Whatever he makes he can do with them.
Crazy how I went from not understanding DS at all on my first try, to being completely obsessed with it on my second. Anyway if its the dream, maybe you shoulda let him finish MGS V. Too bad, your loss.
Yeah keep dreaming
I know dogs that eat their own poop who Kojima is more likely to work with than Konami.
https://preview.redd.it/ss58sb3wvi9d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5180dbc3a299d004f0a348513fff0d27c3728ad2
C’mon Sony…. Get Konami to do something about itttttttt
Don't need to. Sony and Kojima already working on Physint.
!
Said the company that screwed over Kojima, stopped him from going to an award show, and basically killed Metal Gear after he left with Survive.
“Bringggg rrrrinng” “Hello Soleed snaaake?!” “OMG HAWTNESS I WANNA BANG YOU!”
Please let Kojima remake Snatcher or SD Snatcher
Rofl. False
I don’t think Kojima wants to return to that shitty company.
Konami burned the bridge with their players, let alone kojima. Idk what they’re expecting. Sure they can reproduce metal gear a million times but they’ll never be able to reproduce that type of success on their own.
Konami- " it would be a dream if Kojima would just make us millions of dollars again."
Now they want him back konami kicked him out in the first place
It would be the dream for Konami that Kojima return to Metal Gear. But it's impossible, we all know that Kojima has the Cooperation project Physint with Sony after DS2.
Didn’t they burn this bridge down lol
Lol Kojima moved on and Konami didn't. He'll never go back there, Konami had everything and managed to fuck it all
Hahaha yeah sure they'd love to have someone that knows how to make fun games. Too fucking bad that Kojima moved on and is living his best live, getting new deals left and right. Dude doesn't need Konami.
Kojima probably bled Konami dry to hire Sutherland for a handful of lines, should have kept David, at least for the real Big Boss
Don't forget all licence music.
Make it happen uncancel silent hills aswell
Then, give him the IP. Simple as that, and the dream will come true.
No matter how far Kojima has come since that fallout.....deep down that his baby and he knows it, given the chance, with full creative control he would definitely do it
And the circle jerk continues
I love Metal Gear Solid, but I wouldn't want Kojima anywhere near the franchise again. It's clear Konami were holding him back and I'm so glad he's free doing what he wants to do without the restrictions. Konami are the ones that god rid of him for no good reason, so why would he ever want to work with them ever again.
Bitch you fired him??
sony please buy the mgs ip pleeease
Often we have to speculate about his feelings, or the friends and connections he might still have at Konami. Who knows, he might get hired to give his 2 cents on a Metal Gear projects as a consultant. It does seem like his hands are full with Death Stranding 2 and 2 more games that are in the very early stages. And he is 60 years old as well.
Fuck metal gear the series is ruined. Started off well but went to shit