Konami Producer Would 'Like Nothing Better Than to Work with Hideo Kojima Again'

"That would be the dream"

by Khayl Adam 2d ago

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater PS5 PlayStation

It seems time heals all wounds, even the grievous ones that linger after a high-profile public breakup. Noriaki Okamura, producer of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater from Konami, has signalled that not only would he be up for working with auteur creator Hideo Kojima again, it's his heart's most fervent desire.

Okamura made the comments in the recently released Metal Gear Production Hotline video (thanks, Gematsu). Making sure to separate his stance from Konami's, the producer was asked if there was any chance that the original staff members would return to work on, co-develop, or supervise any Metal Gear games, to which he replied:

"Wow, okay. I can see we're starting with a tough one, huh? It's not my place to answer on behalf of anyone outside the company or to guess how they might feel about it. But just speaking for myself, personally, I'd like nothing better than to work with Mr. Kojima and the rest of the team again. If that could happen, that would be the dream."

Okamura also confirmed that Kojima and the development staff of the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will be properly credited for their work and appear in Delta's credits.

Do you still hope in your secret heart that Kojima and the Metal Gear franchise can one day be reconciled? Dare to dream in the comments section below.

[source youtu.be, via gematsu.com]

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

1
LifeGirl
2d ago

Related articles: "Konami still Freakin' hates Kojima."

So no. Probably not lol.

2
Yousef-
2d ago

This is incredibly wholesome to read. Hope he gets his wish.

Well this guy is gonna get demoted to janitor now...

4
Orpheus79V
2d ago

You should probably have included the second half of his quote where Okamura acknowledges people have moved on and such.

Besides that, I should do a quick rundown on the Kojima/Konami situation, 9 years on. Konami's executives who pushed Kojima out are not in the company anymore, pachinko hasn't been a focus for several years, with the video game division earning the most revenue, and much of the key MGS staff who worked with Kojima on those games do still remain there and are working on Delta.

(nobody is going to care about what I just put and the same old memes will continue).

5
Specky
2d ago

💕💕You don't know what you have until it's gone💕💕💕

6
DragoonZied
2d ago

@Orpheus79V I do care

7
Dragoon1994
2d ago

Yeah I don’t see that happening doubt Kojima will ever want to go back to them or work with them again

@Orpheus79V I also care, and thank you for the updated information. But it's really all about great games, both new and respecting their beloved IP. Until they regularly put out great games the memes and complaints will understandably continue.

E.g. Where is Castlevania? It's been a decade since the MercurySteam trilogy ended and 15+ years since a new Konami developed game?

@Orpheus79V So those old senile Konami higher ups already retired and got replaced by better and more rational people?

If that's true then I guess that makes sense because i read Kojima and the og Kojipro names will appear in the end-credit for this remake, which is a big surprised for me since the "old" Konami took down Kojima name & Kojipro logo from MGS 5 and any MGS re-release as if his name is a disease.

Heck. Konami doesn't even credited Murayama's name for Suikoden 3 just because he left the company one month before the game released :/

Hmm. I guess this new Konami earned a bit of respect from me.

10
Frmknst
2d ago

Noone should work with Kojima again! Hah, there I said it.

11
Steel76
2d ago

I wish Kojima made games like Snatcher and MGS1 again, before his games became too damn weird, and Hollywood pretentious...

I don't blame "old" Konami, if they got tired of his *****.
And I don't like the way he handled the situation with David Hayter, during the development of MGS5.
Kojima didn't even thank him, for what he did for the series.
Kojima sound like the kind of guy that gladly throws you under the bus, to get his way.

12
Korgon
2d ago

I think Okamura is a great choice to be the new sort of "face" of the franchise. He has worked on most games of the franchise and after seeing this interview in full I appreciate how down to earth about the current state of MGS he is. He clearly still holds lots of respect for Kojima and the rest of the former staff but isn't foolish to think they are ever going to work again together. Like he said it would "be a dream".

I don't know the guy just comes off as a true fan of the series and wants to at the very least preserve it as best he can. I appreciate that and wish him and the team well in their endeavors.

13
Nem
2d ago

Neither Hideo nor Konami would allow that.

Hideo is busy making his new espionage game now and death stranding 2. He has no interest in helping konami revive MGS.
Konami could sell the IP to Sony and this guy could move to kojima productions. It's the only scenario i see as possible.

Thats a tall task.is kojima for it.i know times past.and hatred heals.but how deep is it.who knows.word up son

Big fan of Hideo's older games. MGS is my favorite game of all time. Kojima as a person though, I am not a fan of.

I could honestly do without him after how he treated David Hayter.

@Orpheus79V

I get the pachinko jokes are outdated, but Konami still remains a shadow of its former self in the games biz.

The MGS Master Collection was a barebones, lazy port cash grab, the Silent Hill projects thus far have all been absolute duds, and I don't agree with assigning Bloober Team the remake duties for SH2 (assigning Silent Hill to a western team is a mistake they have made over, and over, and over again in the past). Oh, and Contra Hard Corps was awful. Castlevania remains in cryostasis outside of basic ports and cameos in other games.

I am not encouraged by the fact they are keeping the old voice work for MGS3 for Delta, as all those voice actors are still very active and would be willing to re-record them. Everything they do reeks of laziness and cutting corners.

The sole shining point for them has been Contra: Operation Galuga, a smaller title. I honestly can't think of anything else.

You hear that Hideo they are admitting they dont know what there doing and they need you to come and save the game....

18
McBurn
2d ago

Well now we know where this dev will work after his current project xD

19
Specky
2d ago

@Steel76
Whatever he does with the cutscenes don't take away from the gameplay, which have always been stellar. His Hollywood shtick is just bonus content, there's always a skip button.
He goes out of his way to make MORE and longer cutscenes to flush the story out. It's all extra.

Normal games there'd be short cutscenes or even bland in-game dialogue. Worse, something outdated and soulless like Starfield.

I alway find it incredible how gamers are the most critical of the creators who go the extra mile and DEFEND the mediocre garbage on mass

20
IamJT
2d ago

@Orpheus79V Love all the context, thanks for the additional information. I have been saying the articles on here need more background information and explanation for a while now. If you read the comments under the articles, they are filled with mostly the same misinformation and misunderstanding that gets spread when the information shared by the article is cherry picked from a broader topic.

21
JaBrony123
2d ago

@LifeGirl I thought the same thing too but then I saw that the article is from 2017. Just goes to show there hasn't been much news on the Konami/Kojima situation for some time! It is just nice to hear there isnt that bad beef anymore.

22
Steel76
2d ago

@PegasusActual93 Not anyway near Death Stranding.

@Specky This.Thank you 🤝🤝

@Steel76 You don't blame old Konami who grew tired that Kojima made a buttload of money for them? Lmao. MGS V: Phantom Pain alone brought Konami $179 million revenue on release date and that was higher than Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World box office combine. Since Kojima left, Konami never have any big release that give them tons of money like MGS V did. MGS series itself already sold 61 million copies ww, pretty much Konami 2nd best selling franchise after Winning Eleven / PES at 111 million copies

But old Konami thinks "Oh F* Kojima and his pretentious ass. Let's kicked him out from the company and just pumped out PES, Power Pros, and pachinko and we'll be fine." But after pachinko money dried up and no one gives a damn about PES anymore, look at what Konami do right now? They're licking Kojima's "pretentious ass" by milking his series again lol.

Also, i believe Kojima never meet David Hayter in person and he probably would thank him if he meet Hayter face to face. And changing voice actor is normal in gaming industry. So it's weird to see some people got stuck about Kojima choose Kiefer to voice Big Boss in MGS V without telling Hayter. It's not like Hayter got a lifetime contract to voice Snake for the rest of his life.