By now, you are well aware of the news that the Kojima/Konami relationship has come to a less than civil end, as evidenced by this flaming pile of crap from Konami, coupled with this complete and utter nonsense from Konami, and culminating in this great big hot mess of a disaster from, you guessed it, Konami. 29 years of a mutually beneficial relationship leveled before our very eyes over the course of a year.
As of December 15, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has started his own studio and has agreed to release its first title as a PlayStation 4 console-exclusive — that will eventually make its way onto PC. The announcement was far from a surprise for those that know the longstanding relationship Kojima and Sony have fostered over the last couple of decades.
However, the deal makes sense on an array of different levels for both parties that are involved. Let’s take a look at what made this deal predictable, yet oh so sweet.
Kojima and Sony’s Longstanding Relationship
Make no mistake about it, Kojima went where Kojima was wanted and has been wanted for years. No one knows the full details of the Kojima/Konami break-up, and any theory is based at best in educated conjecture and at worst in wild speculation. One thing was very clear, however, Konami had lost all desire to maintain any sort of relationship with their most famous developer.
Kojima has worked closely with PlayStation on every console they’ve released since Metal Gear Solid released on PlayStation One in 1998, and the relationship grew stronger and stronger over the years. In an interview with Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, Kojima said “I feel I can relate to Sony, a company that was built up by engineers, and I hope that I can continue walking with them in the future.”
Despite going multiplatform with titles recently, Kojima and Sony have always been two peas in a pod. The pairing just seemed to fit moving forward. Sony made it clear through their swift movement in making this deal that whatever Kojima is putting together is desperately wanted on the PlayStation 4.
The Upfront Costs
Regardless of the influence and wealth that Hideo Kojima has built through his role as a rockstar game creator, the upfront cost of opening a studio is substantial and probably far beyond the means of any single developer to take on. The speed of the announcement and the deal means that Kojima is probably motivated to move forward on a project as soon as possible, but securing the funds to open a new studio without a publishing deal such as the one struck would have required a long drawn out process of finding investors.
What this deal, which was secured for an undisclosed amount, allows Kojima to do is begin purchasing resources, obtaining studio space, and hiring talent to surround himself with. Let’s be honest for a moment, Kojima isn’t setting the world ablaze with turnaround on his development cycles. His games are much like a fine wine, aging for years in the proverbial development barrel until they are ready to hit the shelves. This deal just applied a little extra grease to what is sure to still be a slowly churning wheel.
Sony’s Presence in Both the Japanese & American Markets
Slowly over his 29 years at Konami, Kojima had been making Metal Gear Solid games that appealed more and more to a western market while still continuing to be relevant in his native Japanese market. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was the culmination of years of honing what it means to make an open-world action game, and it resulted in a magnum opus of a swan song for the series as we know it.
Now with a foot firmly planted in the Japanese conscious and the western conscious, it was important for Kojima to align himself with a company that maintains the same level of relevance in the respective markets. Japanese companies such as Capcom, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and Koei Tecmo don’t hold a candle to the level of western influence that Sony does. While more western publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, and Microsoft don’t garner much attention from the Japanese market.
Sony is the perfect middle ground for Kojima to remain relevant in both markets.
Sony’s Willingness to Let 3rd Parties Retain IP
Kojima’s lifelong success has been wrapped up in a series that he holds no ownership of, in characters that stayed with Konami after his departure, and in a lore that he can no longer legally build upon. While it isn’t confirmed, it would be safe to assume that a creative mind like Kojima would not want to tie up any future success to a series that he does not own.
There are plenty of 3rd and 2nd party IPs that Sony does own (Until Dawn, The Order 1886, Bloodborne, etc.), but they have also entered into partnerships with other studios while allowing them to retain the rights to their Intellectual Property. For instance, Housemarque owns Resogun, Matterfall, and Super Stardust while being published by SCE. It would be a surprise if the deal between Sony and Kojima forced him to surrender ownership of the new game that he is working on.
It will be interesting to see the slow trickle of information that is sure to follow over the coming year concerning Kojima’s new IP. What do you think of the deal between him and Sony?
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