Hideo Kojima has officially left Konami

Hideo Kojima has officially left Konami

| Source: Polygon Author: Mark Campbell

Hideo Kojima has officially left Konami

Hideo Kojima has officially left Konami as of December 15th according to nikkei, a Japanese publication. Currently Hideo Kojima is said to be creating his own Studio and is in talks with Sony Entertainment.

When it was originally reported that Kojima was leaving Konami he reportedly had a non-compete clause in his contract which expired in December, preventing the developer from moving to a different studio or create his own. Now that this agreement has expired Hideo Kojima is now free to create his won studio and work on future titles outside of Konami.

As many of you may remember Hideo Kojima, the director/designer of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was barred from attending the video game awards two weeks ago by Konami, resulting in an award fro the game being given to Kiefer Sutherland on his behalf.

When the news regarding Hideo Kojima's absence was delivered by host Geoff Keighley, the audience boo'd in protest of Konami's action.

As you noticed, Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I want to tell you a little about that. Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight, 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. [crowd boos] He’s still under an employment contract. And 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.

It is truly fantastic to no see this industry powerhouse finally outside of the clutches of Konami and able to explore his options and create games which are complete and much more gamer focused rather than profit focused.

All rumors today suggest that Konami will never truly enter the mainstream video game scene again, at least not with anything that can be defined as interesting, having lost most of it's talent and having milked many of it's major franchises to the ground.

You can join the discussion on Hideo Kojima officially leaving Konami on the OC3D Forums.

Hideo Kojima has officially left Konami and is forming his own Studio. https://t.co/1KcyNVx3Rs pic.twitter.com/F9AtEhn0Nl — OC3D (@OC3D) December 15, 2015

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