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Kojima: “I will still make big games”


Posted on December 18, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima remains intent on making “big games” in the wake of his departure from Konami, a task that he feels is his “role in this world.”Kojimas eyes so intesnse

In a new interview with the New Yorker, Kojima revealed he considered taking a year-long trip to a deserted island after leaving Konami under reportedly less-than-amicable terms. He has decided to keep making games after sharing the plan with an unnamed ” Hollywood friend” who suggested he instead keep working.

“Hearing that affirmed to me that my role in this world is to keep on making big games for as long as I can,” Kojima said. “That is the mission I’ve been given in life.”

Despite this, Kojima suggested earlier this week that the first project from his new studio, Kojima Productions, could be “smaller-scale.” Following whatever that first game turns out to be, the studio “could consider movies, animations, anything.” I think this is a good thing honestly, lets let him get his legs under him as an independent studio find and work with good talent, and then we can ask for another epic.  In the new interview, Kojima seemed to be happy with the flexibility that being independent provides.

“When working in big companies, especially Japanese companies, every little thing has to be approved beforehand, and you need paperwork to do anything, Now that I’m independent, I can do what I want with much more speed. I don’t need to invest time in unnecessary presentations. I shoulder the risk.” this idea fascinates me, Japanese business culture is very structured and rigid, but will Kojima’s new studio be more fluid and flexible, or will he ultimately fall back on the ways of traditional Japanese style development?

It seems that at least for new Kojima is quite content to even have the right to say what ever he wants as he said regarding Konami as a company  “When I was in a company, my personal statements could be taken as the overall direction of the company, as such, I couldn’t say just anything.”

Konami has said they intend to keep making Metal Gear games, so it’s unclear if Kojima was commenting directly on his former employer, but this shift is brought up by the New Yorker, which then quotes Kojima as saying, “If you’re only focused on the profits immediately in front of you, the times will leave you behind. It becomes impossible to catch up again.”

Sony announced earlier this week that it’s partnering with Kojima Productions on its first game. That title will debut on PlayStation 4 before later being released for PC.


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Is Konami holding Hideo Kojima hostage?


Posted on December 4, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

Last night at the game awards Geoff Keighley leveled some fairly heavy accusations at Konami who reportedly did not “allow” Hideo Kojima to come to Los Angelos to accept the award that his game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain won. Geoff did not mince words, calling out Konami for not allowing Kojima to come to the Game Awards in LA.

““Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight,” Keighley said during the proceedings, via Gematsu. “But unfortunately, he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight’s awards ceremony to accept any awards. “He’s still under an employment contract, it’s disappointing, and it’s inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates.”

This adds to the ever growing pile of drama between Hideo and his former (or current?) studio Konami. Earlier this year and directly after the the release of MGS:V Kojima was reportly “dismissed” and a small party was held in honor of his departure. Konami later denied that this had ever happened, but it seemed like the horse was already out of the barn. While convincing evidence emerged in October that Kojima had left the company shortly after the release of The Phantom Pain, Konami denied the reports.

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Kojima is much beloved for his Metal Gear franchise and has been publishing in the game industry since the early 90’s. His departure from Konami would be to say the least a major shake up.

 

 


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Hideo Kojima Has Left Konami and Kojima Productions


Posted on October 19, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

Hideo Kojima, whom has leant his name to Kojima productions, has left Koonami, and his self named studio. This will come as no surprise to most people, after he was asked to step away from his last project (Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain) due to time and budget concerns. A source whom spoke with the New Yorker said a ceremony took place at Kojima studios for his departure, about 100 people attended, and that there was a “rather cheerful but also emotional goodbye.” the source, who wished to remain unnamed, said that he did not see Konami’s president, Hideki Hayakawa, or its C.E.O., Sadaaki Kaneyoshi, at the party, but some of Kojima’s colleagues from other studios showed up to pay their respects, as did many of the people who worked on his most recent directorial project, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.  The story also reports that Kojima has signed a non-compete which expires in December, after which perhaps we will see something new out of the legendary director.

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Kojimas name has become synonymous with the cinematic story telling of the Metal Gear franchise which he created and has been at the head of development since its first installment. For those unfamiliar with Metal Gear, it spans several games, over a period of more than 50 in game years, and has an expansive world and cast whom appear in each game. The latest installment featured an open world map, player created bases, and hundreds of in game item variations. Kojima’s importance to both Konami and the gaming world can not be understated, his name stands with the likes of Miyamoto in the pantheon of great creators.

Unfortunately for those who follow this sort of thing, this move will come as no surprise. Kojima was asked to step away from the latest metal gear installment after production ran long and expensive. Konami wanted the game released, Kojima wanted the game to be feature complete, and it set the studio head and his company at odds.  I for one hope he goes out on his own, perhaps runs a crowd funding initive and builds what he wants to build rather than being confined to studios budgets and time schedule.


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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – Next Chapter Theorized


Posted on October 13, 2015 by Kenny Keelan

There is one hell of a dedicated group over on reddit that seems to have finally broken ground on what they believe to be hints towards a third chapter to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. There’s already evidence of this in the fact that cinematics and storyboards are already out there regarding a mission that cannot be played in the game proper but no one can confirm whether or not that content is to be seen in some kind of official next chapter or if it was just something that was left on the cutting room floor that wasn’t cleaned up. Spoiler beyond the bump, so if you haven’t played the game through, please don’t go on.

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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Review


Posted on October 4, 2015 by Kenny Keelan

Writer’s Note: There’s a lot of sensitive content here. There’s going to be spoilers, though I will warn in advance. I’m not really going to be holding anything back here. This game has a lot of mature content and it needs to be discussed so this is what I’m doing. Last but not least, I reviewed this using a Day One Edition PlayStation 4 copy of the game.

Well, holy shit guys, I’ve finally done it. I’ve completed the story content and a majority of the side content of The Phantom Pain. I knew this game was going to be one for the history books and it most certainly is. There’s not a quick way to explain this game. You could try but no matter how, you’d fall short every time. There is no easy way to classify this game, whether you like it or not: in spite of the things that may have fallen short or risen high about this game, in spite of what you would say about it, you have to admit one thing… it made you feel something. Games don’t often do that. And it’s more than petty things, too: it’s not the kind of stuff fanboys argue about or the casuals complain about. It’s the kind of stuff you keep around with you forever. This is one of those games that will earmark this generation of gaming, guaranteed. This is one of those things that I felt was missing, almost entirely, from the last generation: a game or series of games that changed your life as a gamer. Things had been changing for a while now and we got one last swan song from a company that had been drowning in its own misdeeds for years, now.
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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance | Review


Posted on February 26, 2013 by Jason Bassett

Version tested: Xbox 360

Fast is a good adjective to describe Raiden. Lightning-quick is another good one. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a very fast and highly violent video game–very violent. It’s possible that one could become nauseous at the violence in this game. That’s on the surface of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Deep within the core of Rising lies a very awesome and very challenging video game that will give you a deeper understanding of how Platinum Games and Kojima Productions have taken a project that was once almost dead and buried and turned it into one of the must have titles this year.Read More


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Zone of the Enders HD Collection Out Next Month, Includes Metal Gear Rising Demo


Posted on September 19, 2012 by Shane Rowbotham

Just Announced today by Konami Digital Entertainment, the upcoming HD Remastered Version of Zone of the Enders will be releasing in October for the Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 Consoles, as reported by VG247. Not only that, as an added slice of gratitude, Konami will slip in a bonus demo of the MGS Spin-Off, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

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Metal Gear Solid Online Uses Up All Its Rations, Being Taken Offline


Posted on June 11, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Konami announced this afternoon that the last big event for Metal Gear Solid Online, the multiplayer portion of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be running for the next 24 hours before the game is taken permanently offline.

Since this past April all of MGO’s expansion packs have been free for members of the service and reward shop items, which were previously purchasable by players, have been free as well. Konami issued a rather heartfelt statement regarding the games closure on their website. Check out a portion of it after the jump.

To all of those PMC Operatives who kept the game alive these past four years, we salute you.Read More


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Metal Gear Solid Rising Cuts Down the Competition


Posted on June 1, 2012 by Eric Bastelak

So early this morning at Konami’s pre E3 show, we received a seak peak of something very beautiful. A new trailer and update of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. This trailer has shown off the cut physics which show something very similar to what we saw when the game was first announced. MGS Rising, looks amazing I can’t wait to get my hands on the game unfortunatley it won’t be until “Early 2013” now, whenever that is.Read More


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The Broken Joysticks Top 5: Character Voices


Posted on May 16, 2012 by Eric Bastelak

Welcome my dearest readers to a new and hopefully regular segment The Broken Joysticks Top 5 or top 10. Today in our first edition we look at one of the most defining things a character can have, their voice. Today we will go through a list of characters whose voices just demand a place in your memory.Read More


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Sony Press Event – My Day With The Games


Posted on May 8, 2012 by Matthew Regier

I had the opportunity to go spend a day at a Sony press event where they were able to show off a bunch of upcoming games coming out for the Playstation 3 and Vita. Beforehand I only knew of a handful of titles that were going to be there, so when I arrived and found twice the amount of TVs I was expecting I have to admit I was pretty excited, especially for a couple of the titles that I will talk about in a bit. I’m going to discuss my time with the games and my initial opinions on everything that I saw.

There’s plenty to discuss so read on…

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