Konami has denied yesterday’s report that designer Hideo Kojima has left the publisher.

A very recent report said that Metal Gear Solid series creator Hideo Kojima left publisher Konami October 9. In the report, it was revealed that after the non-compete agreement expires in December, Kojima will be free to work on new projects with other publishers.

Today, in a statement issued to Tokyo Sports, Konami denied the report, saying Kojima is still listed as an employee.

“Currently, Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid V and are taking a long time off from work,” reads the statement – as translated by Kotaku.

Yesterday’s report claimed Kojima Productions held a farewell party at Konami, something the statement also denied. Simon Parkin, the author of the piece, took to Twitter to show off a picture from the event.

Here is a photograph of Kojima's farewell party on October 9th at Konami, which Konami claims no knowledge of: pic.twitter.com/xgRUoYs5qt — Simon Parkin (@SimonParkin) October 20, 2015 Subscribe to the VG247 newsletter Get all the best bits of VG247 delivered to your inbox every Friday! Enable JavaScript to sign up to our newsletter

“Because the development time for console games is so long and fatigue builds up, it’s common for employees to take extended periods of time off when development is finished,” continued the statement.