On Oct. 9, 2015, the creator of the popular Metal Gear Solid series of video games, Hideo Kojima, left the offices of Konami’s Tokyo headquarters for the last time. Kojima has been an employee at Konami since 1986, and has played an integral role in the rise of the video game publisher’s popularity over 29 years of working at the company.
It has long been suspected that Kojima and Konami were to eventually part ways. The removal of Hideo Kojima’s name and the Kojima Productions logo from Konami’s Metal Gear Solid website, as well as previously released game trailers earlier this year heralded the beginning of the end. Subsequently, before the departure of its director, Kojima Productions—Hideo Kojima’s production studio and a subsidiary of Konami—was disbanded. Fans of the renowned series began to speculate various reasons as to why such action had been taken, most of which predicted Kojima’s eventual resignation. The question everyone immediately began to ask, however, remained why.
Last Tuesday, an article written in the popular gaming blog, Kotaku, reported that a spokesperson for Konami had told Tokyo Sports that Kojima was “still listed as a company employee [at Konami].” The Konami spokesperson explained that Kojima’s absence is due to “the development time for console games [being] so long, and fatigue builds up. It’s common for employees to take extended periods of time off when development is finished.” Unsurprisingly, this statement was met with further speculation. Konami insists that the Metal Gear Solid creator is simply on vacation, although the duration of this alleged vacation remains unspecified. Kotaku writer, Brian Ashcraft, appears to believe that Kojima’s time off is “a way for a long fade out” once his contract with Konami ends in December.
The latest installment in the blockbuster game series, Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain, was released on Sept. 1, 2015, and is available for PC, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It is the first of the franchise to incorporate the open world concept of game play, in which players are able to freely move across in-game environments without the regular linearity found in previous installments of the series. Metal Gear Solid 5 stands as the final product of Kojima Productions but was published by Konami.
Konami is also known for their development and production of the popular collectible card game Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well as the Silent Hill saga; a well-known horror series which boasts two blockbusting film adaptations. The Silent Hill saga was set to include a ninth installment which would have been produced by Hideo Kojima in collaboration with film director Guillermo del Toro but has been cancelled with the disbandment of Kojima Productions.
Whether or not we can expect to see Hideo Kojima back in the production studios remains to be seen. Although, if Kojima truly is on vacation, who can blame him for wanting to kick back and relax after 29 years of video game success?