If you thought that Konami was done erasing Hideo Kojima’s work then you thought wrong. The Japanese game developer has apparently shut down its Los Angeles based studio, which was originally set up as an arm of Kojima Productions.
The studio was founded in 2013 to work on Metal Gear Online, and employed over 20 game developers. It was rebranded as Konami Los Angeles Studio earlier this year as the fallout between Konami and Kojima began to intensify.
Employees at the studio were not aware of their fate, as Eurogamer reports that staff were still brainstorming new ideas for development before news of the closure reached them. It is understood that development of Metal Gear Online has been moved to Konami’s Japanese studio.
It isn’t entirely surprising that Konami has shut down the studio. The developer has been going out of its way to remove any memory of Kojima, going as far as to remove his name from the latest Metal Gear title; and even shutting down development of a new Silent Hills game. Konami has not made an official statement on the matter, but it is unlikely to provide much insight on the matter.
This latest casualty of the Konami-Kojima saga is one of the worst as many game developers have ended up losing their jobs over it. With any luck, the problems are over and the Konami leadership is done erasing Kojima from their consciousness.
[Source: Eurogamer]
