Kojima Productions Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development studio founded in 2005 by video game designerHideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series. It was established as a subsidiary of Konami. The studio had around 100 employees, but grew to over 200 for . After leaving Konami and ending the contract, Kojima reformed the company as an independent studio in Shinagawa.
History
Formation
Kojima Productions was formed on April 1, 2005, after Konami merged several subsidiaries including Kojima's team at Konami Computer Entertainment Japan. Kojima said the merger relieved him of business management and administrative burdens he had as KCEJ's vice president, and that as head of Kojima Productions he could focus on creating games. According to Kojima, while he now held a position on the Konami board, he still had to persuade staff to invest in his game ideas: "That's my challenge, and my satisfaction when I present to them, saying I want to create this new thing... If they say, 'No! We don't know what you're talking about!' then this is actually the fun part." The first Kojima Productions release was Metal Gear Solid HD Collection in 2011, a compilation of Metal Gear games. They released ' for Nintendo 3DS as a port for '. The company produced two final video games for Konami, including ' and '.
Closure
On March 16, 2015, Konami announced that it had restructured the game development operations to " our production structure to a headquarters-controlled system, in order to establish a steadfast operating base capable of responding to the rapid market changes that surround our digital entertainment business." Kojima and his company were stripped from promotional material and websites relating to the Metal Gear series, Kojima's Los Angeles studio was renamed Konami Los Angeles Studio, a new Metal Gear SolidTwitter account without references to Kojima in its username was established, and the Kojima Productions website began to redirect to the Metal Gear Solid website. That day, Kojima posted a photo on his personal Twitter account captioned "heading off", and a Konami filing stated that as of April 1, 2015, he would no longer be among Konami's executive officers. Speculation arose that Kojima had planned to leave Konami after the release of The Phantom Pain, which he had described as the conclusion to the Metal Gear series. On March 19, an anonymous employee reported to GameSpot that these changes were a result of conflicts between Kojima and Konami. The employee stated that Kojima and his staff were now being treated as contracted workers rather than employees, Konami had blocked access to their corporate e-mail and phone systems, and that Kojima and the studio's senior staff planned to leave Konami in December 2015 following the conclusion of their contracts and the release of The Phantom Pain. A Konami spokesperson denied that Kojima was leaving the company, and stated that he would still be involved with Konami and the Metal Gear franchise. On March 20, Konami stated on its website that Kojima would stay through at least the completion of The Phantom Pain, and that it was recruiting staff to develop future Metal Gear games. Kojima confirmed in a statement that he was still "100% involved" in The Phantom Pain, and was "determined to make it the greatest game I've directed to date". Actress Donna Burke, who had been involved in the game, claimed in a posting on Twitter that Kojima had been fired; Konami denied these claims and Burke revoked her statement. On July 10, 2015, Akio Ōtsuka tweeted that Kojima Productions had closed. In December 2015, Kojima Productions was nominated for Developer of the Year at The Game Awards 2015, but lost to CD Projekt Red. Kojima was reportedly blocked from attending the event by Konami's lawyers, requiring Snake actor Kiefer Sutherland to accept awards for The Phantom Pain on his behalf.
Independent reformation
On December 16, 2015, in a joint announcement with Sony Computer Entertainment, Kojima announced that his company would be re-established as an independent studio, with artist Yoji Shinkawa and producer Kenichiro Imaizumi. The studio announced that it would develop a new franchise for PlayStation 4. Kojima stated that he "will be taking on a new challenge by establishing my own independent studio, and I am thrilled to be able to embark on this journey with PlayStation, who I have continued to work with all these past years". At E3 2016, Kojima unveiled a trailer to Death Stranding during Sony's pre-E3 conference. It was released by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2019, and a PC version was released by 505 Games on Windows in July 2020. In November 2019, the studio announced their plans to make films. Kojima modeled the philosophy of Media Molecule when reforming the studio. After visiting the company in 2016, he simultaneously modeled his own, wanting "a small, intimate type of studio". Kojima praised their high number of female employees and relaxed atmosphere comparing the atmosphere to a family. Kojima set a limit of one hundred employees for the studio, similar to Media Molecule. Imaizumi left the company in 2019. In April 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic, the office was shut down after an employee contracted COVID-19.
Games
Though Kojima had been designing games at Konami in 1987, the studio was not officially formed until 2005. However, Konami retroactively referred to Kojima's earlier productions as belonging to the studio. His games for Konami were released until 2015.
