Det var i december 2015 som Hideo Kojima och Konami uppenbarligen inte längre kunde jobba ihop, och därför gick skilda vägar efter decennier av samarbete (vilket inkluderar i princip alla moderna Metal Gear-spel). Men självfallet fanns bromsklausuler i avtalet och Kojima ville därför inte säga något om vad han tyckte om splittringen.
Nu verkar han dock redo att tala ut, och till japanska Famitsu berättar han:
"It was three years and nine months ago that I struck out on my own. At that time, I was 53 years old. That's an age in which you'd retire, right? My family members were also against the idea [of me setting up a new studio]. I was a 53-year-old middle-aged guy, I didn't have any money or much of anything else, and it was just me saying I was going to make this open-world game."
Kojima anger att han inte blivit rik på Metal Gear-spelen, och historierna om exempelvis Ken Levine, Keiji Inafune och Tomonobu Itagaki visar att även namnkunniga producenter med mångmiljonsuccéer på meritlistan har svårt att starta nytt. Han fortsätter:
"The reason for that is that there hasn't been a single world-famous game designer who has had success after striking out on their own. Even when I went to the bank, I couldn't borrow money. They said, 'We know you're renowned, but you don't have any actual results.' This is the kind of country Japan is. But then, there was a banker at the biggest bank [in Japan] who was a huge fan of mine, and I got the financing."
Som ett resultat av detta är Kojima faktiskt tacksam gentemot Konami:
"The reason why I'm who I am now is because of the 30 years I had at Konami," he adds. "I am grateful to Konami, and I cannot deny that connection."
Ser du fram emot Death Stranding, som är Kojimas nästkommande spel?
