The strained relationship between Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami is well-documented, with many fans turning on the company for mistreating their most well-known developer. Interestingly, a prominent Konami personality has since said that they would love to work with Kojima on a new entry of this series, though they acknowledge that it probably won’t happen.
Noriaki Okamura, the current Metal Gear series producer, spoke on a Japanese livestream (via VGC), expressing interest in working with Kojima. Okamura does say that he doesn’t think it will happen, given what happened between the two parties, but admits it would be a dream of his.
“It’s not my place to answer on behalf of anyone outside the company, or to guess how they might feel about it,” Okamura said. “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, it would be the dream.”
Hideo Kojima left Konami back in 2015, though details on why he did have been vague and never fully covered. Konami then removed his signature “Hideo Kojima Game” from the box art of MGS5 and made things harder for his new team to file for things like insurance. The company also prevented Kojima from accepting his award during The Game Awards, with host Geoff Keighley calling them out during said show.
Konami has since tried releasing Metal Gear games without Kojima. Metal Gear Survive was a poor attempt at making the series a survival game, even charging fans just to make an extra save point. A remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 has also been announced, now called Metal Gear Delta, and that actually looks pretty decent.
Fans who want to enjoy Hideo Kojima’s work in the series can pick up the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC. The Metal Gear Solid 3 remake has no release date but is expected to come out on current-gen systems.