HIdeo Kojima: 'Every Day I Am Approached by Ridiculous Offers To Buy Our Studio'
Hideo Kojima says that he’s been approached with some ridiculous monetary offers from other companies to buy his studio, Kojima Productions. However, he’s been rejecting all of them.
On episode #10 on his Spotify podcast, Brain Structure, Kojima says, "We are indies, we have no affiliations whatsoever and are not backed by anyone, and are on good terms with everybody in the industry.”
He continues, “Every day I am approached by offers from all over the world to buy our studio. Some of those offers are ridiculously high prices but it's not that I want money. I want to make what I want to make. That's why I created this studio. So as long as I'm alive, I don't think I'll ever accept those offers.”
Video game studio consolidation and acquisitions have become increasingly popular over the past few years. Microsoft’s 68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is currently being put through scrutiny by regulators in regions like the UK and US. Sony has also bought out major studios like Bungie too.
Kojima also touched upon rumors that a Death Stranding follow-up was pitched to Google as an exclusive before Stadia shut down — rumors that he quickly refuted.
Right now, Kojima Productions is working on a project with Xbox that will leverage Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure. Even though Kojima denies the Stadia rumors, Norman Reedus suggested earlier this year that a sequel to Death Stranding is in fact coming.
Overdose, which is reported to be Kojima’s next game, was recently leaked and there's footage of actress Margaret Qualley’s character in dark corridors holding a flashlight. It’s unclear whether this project is for the Xbox one or for the rumored Death Stranding sequel, as Qualley played a character in the first Death Stranding game.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey