In the wake of the latest rumors about Kojima Productions being acquired by Sony, Hideo Kojima has insisted on the studio’s independence.
Death Stranding
The whole story started earlier this week when ResetEra users spotted a new banner on the PlayStation Studios official website. It showed a list of the company’s first-party games, with the updated version including Death Stranding.
According to Web Archive data, Sony made changes on April 13, replacing a Concrete Genie image with the one showing Kojima Productions’ latest title. This led to speculations about PlayStation’s potential acquisition of the Japanese studio.
Hideo Kojima also shared the updated banner image on Twitter, making more people talk about the rumored deal. However, he later went on to explain the misunderstanding, saying that Kojima Productions “has been and will continue to be an independent studio.”
I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, but KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS has been and will continue to be an independent studio. https://t.co/2M0n4ogRaa
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) April 15, 2022
The studio is now working on new announced games, including a rumored cloud-based title in partnership with Microsoft. In the latest episode of his premium Grubbsnax show, game journalist Jeff Grubb noted that “as of a couple of weeks ago, the Xbox and Kojima deal was still on” (via VGC).
Last year, Kojima Productions launched a new division in Los Angeles to bring its IPs to other mediums like TV, film, and music.