Hideo Kojima Leaving Konami, New Metal Gear Title Confirmed

Hideo Kojima and his development company Kojima Productions are to no longer be a part of Konami, after some reshuffling at the publisher.

Suspicion was raised across the internet when people on reddit and NeoGaf began noticing that Kojima Productions logos were not part of the latest artwork for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Then Konami released their latest executive appointments, which Kojima was curiously absent from.

Konami today released some information about Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where they explicitly state that Hideo Kojima will involved with the game through launch on 1st September.

They also state:

In addition, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. will continue to develop and distribute top-quality content in the METAL GEAR series following "MGSV: TPP." We greatly anticipate and deeply appreciate your ongoing support for METAL GEAR.

As the next step in the series, KONAMI has already resolved to develop a new "METAL GEAR" title.

We will be conducting auditions for main staff to lead the development.

Interested parties are encouraged to contact us to via the recruitment page of the KONAMI official website.

This pretty much states that Kojima will not be working on the next Metal Gear title. Kojima has been saying for a while now, that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be the final game of the series - in some ways it is.

As the creator of the Metal Gear franchise, Kojima has acted as director for most of them and producer for all but Metal Gear Revengeance. So whomever oversees the next Metal Gear title will have some pretty big shoes to fill.