Kojima Productions won’t be joining PlayStation Studios anytime soon

Kojima Productions will not be entertaining a PlayStation acquisition so long as Hideo Kojima remains alive, according to Kojima himself. The clarification follows a round of PlayStation acquisition rumours back in April 2022.

Hideo Kojima has reiterated on his Brain Structure podcast that despite several "ridiculously high" offers from studios to acquire his studio, he intends for his Kojima Productions to remain independent and seems confident that he'll never "accept those offers" so long as he lives. The clarification comes after a year that saw rumours of Sony's PlayStation Studios targeting Kojima Productions for acquisition and also Xbox besting PlayStation in fostering a closer relationship with Kojima's outfit.

Kojima x PlayStation Studios

Kojima Productions to remain separate from PlayStation Studios

As reported by Metro, Kojima clarified his stance on Kojima Productions acquisitions on his Brain Structure podcast: "Every day I am approached by offers all over the world to buy our studio. Some of those offers are ridiculously high prices but it’s not that I want money. I want to make what I want to make. That’s why I created this studio."

Kojima also added a line that not only sounds like it was ripped straight from Metal Gear Solid 2, but also hopefully never proves to be portentous of anything dramatic: "So as long as I’m alive, I don’t think I will ever accept those offers." You can take the man from the Metal Gear, but you can never take the Metal Gear from the man, it seems.

This banner was the source of many a rumour.

Rumours circulated that Sony was eyeing up Kojima Productions last year when the PlayStation maker increased its investment in external PlayStation Studios, particularly in regards to Japanese developers. The door was opened that such a studio might be Kojima's outfit given its close relationship with Sony during the production of one-time PlayStation exclusive Death Stranding.

Flash forward to 2022 and we see Death Stranding on Game Pass and Kojima hard at work on a PT-like named Overdose, and it becomes clear that the game designer is in no rush to cosy up to a giant corporation. Kojima's relationship with former employer Konami deteriorated to such an extent that the designer would leave the development of Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain to establish Kojima Productions as its own beast, and so it remains to this day.

Kojima Productions shall remain independent.

We think the world's a little richer with the creator of the Zone of the Enders series working as a free agent, but we're sure some diehards would still rather the man were working on exclusive PS5 PlayStation Studio titles. Let us know in the comments if you're among those diehards, and also shout out if you think we should put Death Stranding Director's Cut on the hardest PS Plus trophies to platinum list at some point.

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Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee loves writing about the game design of classic PS Plus Premium games and upcoming PS5 games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Final Fantasy XVI. He's a big proponent of video games as an evolving artistic medium, though he's also a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog games, so the medium might want to keep looking for a better spokesperson.