All posts tagged: Hideo Kojima

Kojima Productions Reveals New Game “Death Stranding”, World Confused By Trailer

Published by Frank Inglese

A naked man wakes up on a beach connected by the navel to an infant who, like himself, is also entirely exposed. What connects them is an artificial umbilical cord, but when the man decides to shelter the child from the harsh elements, both it and the cord disappear, leaving only pitch-black oil in it’s place. The man stands and looks out into the horizon, on the sand around him lies the corpses of a thousand sea creatures, but above him are what look to be five levitating humanoids who seemingly phase out of existence as the man notices them. You’re utterly confused by this aren’t you, reader? Yeah, so is everyone else. What I’ve just re-told is Kojima Production’s premier trailer for their upcoming video game project; “Death Stranding“, which was revealed as a part of this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo, known to many simply as “E3“. This new game lead by the genius mind of Hideo Kojima and his crack team of developers will star Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead fame who was set to …

New Image Of Kojima Productions Mascot Ludens Confirms He Is Not A Skeleton Man

Published by Frank Inglese

Last month, Kojima Productions revealed to the world the character behind the image for their new logo; a suited adventurer named Ludens who many of us, mostly me, thought was to be some sort of scary skeleton man. As it turns out, Ludens is simply a human wearing something akin to a skeleton face mask. How do I know this? Well Kojima Productions has sent through a key art asset to North America’s GameStop retailer, we assume, to use in a slew of promotional campaigns that may range from in-store advertising to website-based publicity. Regardless, GameStop leaked this image, confirming to the world that Ludens is indeed a flesh and bone man, and not some sort of mythical bone gentlemen with a penchant for future technologies. The image features the words “I’ll Keep Coming“, which still does not shed light on what Kojima Productions are currently working on, though many people are speculating, thanks to previous information, that it will revolve heavily around space travel. Do I agree with this? No, but that’s because I …

Hideo Kojima Introduces The World To Company Mascot Ludens

Published by Frank Inglese

Hideo Kojima is an eccentric man. This is something we all know. Another fact is that most of the bizarre men and women have something to offer in life, the likes of which we’ve most likely never seen before. Kojima’s Metal Gear series of highly popular video games revolutionised the world of console gaming as we know it today, and those games featured some a whole new level of ridiculousness. None the less, they were incredibly enjoyable, and worked wonders for the industry, allowing it to evolve in countless different ways. Now we’re all aware of the confusing war between Konami and Kojima that took place a fair while ago, so I’m not going to bother reiterating something everybody is very much aware of. Instead, I believe we must look towards the future, and it seems as though the truth of that future lies somewhere within Kojima Productions’ new company logo. Kojima Productions has today expanded on it’s already strange mythology by revealing a full-body render of it’s very own emblem. Named Ludens, this Halo-esque character …

Much Like The Might Phoenix, Kojima Productions Rises From The Ashes

Published by Frank Inglese

It’s been a bit of a slog but finally Hideo Kojima, creator of the video game series Metal Gear, has finally been released from his contract with the now infamous video game publisher/developer juggernaut Konami. So what happens now that Kojima has finally made his departure from Konami and his former studio, Kojima Productions, has been disbanded? Well, the answer to that is quite simple; he starts fresh…with the creation of the new Kojima Productions. While Konami has kept the rights to Kojima’s critically acclaimed Metal Gear series, his own name stays with him, and that is why he has titled his new studio after his old, proving that certain special things in life cannot truly be killed. Kojima, as expected from many of those rooted deep in the video game industry, has taken with him a whole team of former Kojima Productions workers who will now accompany him as he, once again, makes a name for himself, this time separate to that of Konami. With the help of Sony Computer Entertainment, who have recently revealed that …

Konami Forbids Hideo Kojima From Attending 2015 Video Game Awards

Published by Frank Inglese

I’m almost too embarrassed to write this article, but it seems as though I have to for the sake of, well…jeez, if this isn’t news than I don’t know what is. Last night, Los Angeles played host to the 2015 Video Game Awards; a gala affair wherein which the best of the best in the industry gather to celebrate the high-quality video game releases of the year. It’s your standard award ceremony, just with video games. Fairly self-explanatory. Now if you follow the industry at all, chances are you were expecting a certain few titles to be nominated for several different awards throughout the night. One of those games would have undoubtedly been Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. If you had guessed that it would have won at least one award, you would be right…but unfortunately the man behind the series could not make it there to accept any accolades awarded to the game for it’s excellence. Well,it’s not that he simply couldn’t make it to the ceremony…it’s that he wasn’t allowed. …

Does Konami Have Plans To Make A Pachinko Machine About MGS’ Big Boss?

Published by Frank Inglese

It’s no industry secret that Konami have decided to make a fairly decent change in regards to video game development as they reach forward into a new future of Pachinko-based product creation. After the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the subsequent letting go of series mastermind Hideo Kojima, Konami announced that they intend on putting more focus on developing gaming systems like Pachinko machines rather than the standard video game console titles we’ve come to expect from them, and while it has been said that they still want to be in video game production and development, the reality of the situation is that they’ll most likely follow the path paved with money which is, of course, the realm of Japanese legal gambling. Recently, a spokesperson from Konami mentioned that the company still plans on developing Metal Gear Solid games without the involvement of Hideo Kojima; a sad but inevitable truth for the much-loved series of stealth-based video games. Something I jokingly assumed would happen, but never thought would become a reality, …

Metal Gear Series to Continue Without Kojima

Published by Luke Halliday

Whether you think Hideo Kojima is a genius or that everything he does is actually an accident, it is impossible to deny the impact that his Metal Gear series has had on the history of gaming. It is hard to imagine a version of Metal Gear without the involvement of Hideo Kojima, but that might very well just be the case with the series potentially set to continue without the man behind the series. Konami’s community manager in the United Kingdom may have let slip a rather big scoop when he confirmed in an interview with Game On that the series and brand will continue without Kojima. He cites that there has already been a Metal Gear game without Kojima’s involvement which is of course referring to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a game from Platinum Games set after the events of the series and focusing on universally divisive Kojima creation Raiden. Whether you want to take the word of a community manager as gospel or not is up to you. However it is rather difficult to …

Junji Ito Revealed To Have Been Working Alongside Kojima And Del Toro For Silent Hills

Published by Frank Inglese

How much more upsetting could the cancellation of Silent Hills possibly get? Mid to late last year, a mysterious playable demo for a brand-new game was released on the PlayStation 4. Labelled “P.T.“, nobody really knew exactly what game this was a demo for…until the very end, when it revealed itself to be the love child of modern day pop cultures’ most brilliant minds. The video game was Silent Hills and it brought together video game and silver screen royalty; Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro, alongside one of the more popular survival-type actors Norman Reedus, most famous as Daryl Dixon from AMC’s The Walking Dead. With these three onboard, and clear evidence of the game’s greatness thanks to the playable demo, Silent Hills was looking be one of the most anticipated games of the near future. That is, until it was cancelled by Konami who seem to be doing some strange stuff as of late. Despite it’s cancellation, Del Toro assured audiences of it’s continuing development process but, since then, we’ve not heard a single …

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – Launch Trailer Released

Published by Frank Inglese

Hideo Kojima and Konami have been prominent figures in the video game industry ever since the first Metal Gear Solid rose to fame in mid 1998. Ever since then, the two have grown together with Kojima at the helm of each and every Metal Gear Solid title, proving to the world almost single-handedly that there’s no such thing as a “bad sequel“. It’s too bad that, as of late, the two juggernauts of the video game industry have been at odds, with Kojima’s name being taken off of most promotional imagery of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain in a suspicious act of defiance against the man who made this all possible. Either way, The Phantom Pain is very close to getting a full release, in fact, it will hit shelves local to all of you reading on the 1st of September this year as a part of a worldwide release. To celebrate the almost-release of what is looking to be a true Hideo Kojima masterpiece, Konami have posted an early launch trailer …

Allies At Arms: Is This Truly The End Of Kojima’s Run With Konami?

Published by Frank Inglese

Over the past twenty four hours many news pieces have been peppered about the world wide web reporting on the “supposed” leaving of Hideo Kojima from long time video game development and producer partner Konami. Despite a great deal of information, though mostly vague, and many updates on the story…nobody has come to a clear conclusion. Depending on what publications you’re getting your news from, it’s either that this has been totally blown out of proportion or that Hideo Kojima is indeed severing ties with Konami and moving on with what seems like the next phase of his career. Truth be told…nobody knows the exact story. The only thing people DO know is that there is indeed some sort of civil unrest at Konami. That much is certain. Word is that there has been a bit of in-fighting for a while now and that it is mostly between Kojima’s personal team and that of Konami, this is obvious. To have it all boil down to the possible disbanding of Kojima Productions and the resignation of …

Keep Quiet And Check Out The ‘Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’ TGS Videos

Published by Frank Inglese

It’s Tokyo Game Show weekend and that means fans of Japanese video games are being delivered the very best new information on some of the most exciting upcoming titles and there’s no game in higher anticipation right now than Hideo Kojima’s ‘Metal GearS Solid V: The Phantom Pain’. Adding to the wonder of TGS, Kojima Productions showcased some awesome new footage of the multi-platform video game that officially introduces us to another of the exciting cast members; a vicious vixen that goes by the name of ‘Quiet’. This young lady featured in her very own teaser trailer not too long ago and today she has been seen once again in the full-length character trailer which was shown just before some gameplay which she also happened to feature in. ‘The Phantom Pain’ has been said to play host to a myriad of new gameplay mechanics, one of which has you partner up with other characters to help successfully complete a mission. A huge example of this came in the form of the aforementioned gameplay footage which …