Tilbage i december 2015 gik Hideo Kojima og Konami hver til sit efter mange, mange års samarbejde, der blandt andet resulterede i udgivelsen af stort set samtlige moderne Metal Gear-spil. Efterfølgende lod det til at Kojima var kontraktbundet til slet ikke at udtale sig om forholdene, eller præcis hvordan splittet kom på tale.
Det lader dog til at han kan udtale sig en smule mere nu. Om ikke andet har han fortalt japanske Famitsu lidt mere om situationen dengang, og hvordan han ikke troede at han kunne lave et spil uden direkte kontrol fra Konami.
"It was three years and nine months ago that I struck out on my own. At that time, I was 53 years old. That's an age in which you'd retire, right? My family members were also against the idea [of me setting up a new studio]. I was a 53-year-old middle-aged guy, I didn't have any money or much of anything else, and it was just me saying I was going to make this open-world game."
Åbenbart har Kojima virkelig ikke særlig mange penge, i hvert fald ikke nok til at starte noget stort, og han vidste dengang, at ikke særlig mange indflydelsesrige instruktører har haft succes med at køre deres eget studie efter at have fået succes under en stor udgiver. Ken Levine og Keiji Inafune vidner blandt andet om dette.
"The reason for that is that there hasn't been a single world-famous game designer who has had success after striking out on their own. Even when I went to the bank, I couldn't borrow money. They said, 'We know you're renowned, but you don't have any actual results.' This is the kind of country Japan is. But then, there was a banker at the biggest bank [in Japan] who was a huge fan of mine, and I got the financing."
Det betyder faktisk at Kojima er direkte taknemmelig overfor Konami.
"The reason why I'm who I am now is because of the 30 years I had at Konami," he adds. "I am grateful to Konami, and I cannot deny that connection."