The voice behind Solid Snake for the Japanese language option, Akio Otsuka, has said that work on Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain is “almost complete”, forcing Kojima Productions to call it a day.
Otsuka said via Twitter, “Kojima Productions was forced to disband, but it appears that the work that the team has been putting their utmost effort into is nearly complete. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I expect it will become their greatest masterpiece. I couldn’t help it. I just wanted to say ‘Kept you waiting, huh?’ But even if this is the end, Metal Gear Solid is immortal!”
Keep in mind that there has not been an official statement regarding the situation from either Kojima himself or Konami, but the falling out between the two has been rather public as well as rather messy. We still don’t even know what actually happened to cause all of this, which started with Hideo Kojima’s name being removed from his games, before escalating into Silent Hills being cancelled and is now ending with the closure of the iconic studio.
This won’t be the last we see of Kojima, though, with his pedigree and huge following in the gaming community, he will undoubtedly be flooded with offers from big name publishers the second this gets official confirmation. In a way, though, it would be nice to see Kojima start up his own studio and just create, free from any big name publisher. Time well tell, but we will see Kojima again – I have no doubts about that.