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Hideo Kojima's publishing deal with Microsoft seems to be nearing completion, as the two parties have reportedly signed a letter of intent (LOI) which lays out the general details of an agreement for a new Xbox game.
Back in April, GamesBeat reported that Kojima and Microsoft were "in talks" over publishing a new game, and today it's reporting that those talks have reached a significant milestone with the LOI. Though a formal agreement has yet to be inked, GamesBeat suggests that talks aren't likely to fall apart at this stage. In fact, the new report says the deal is far enough along that Microsoft is already planning out the technical specifics necessary for Kojima to begin work on the mystery project.
As for the game itself, it's as enigmatic as we've come to expect from Kojima, though new details reportedly surfacing from within Microsoft hint that the potential project will be cloud-based. Last week, Microsoft announced that it had hired Portal lead designer Kim Swift as senior director of cloud gaming at Xbox. GamesBeat now says Microsoft hired Swift to assist in bringing Kojima's idea for a cloud-based game to life.
Though it sounds like the broad strokes of Kojima's game are involved in discussions, the overall deal is said to be about Kojima's creative visions more generally. "The point of the partnership is to unlock the creativity of Kojima Productions using Microsoft's technology as opposed to greenlighting a specific pitch," reports GamesBeat.
Neither Microsoft nor Kojima have confirmed that any such deal is in the works, and today's report simply says an LOI has been signed, which is not confirmation of an upcoming Kojima Xbox game. Even if the reported deal bears fruit, it'll likely be years before we see so much as a trailer. Still, it's no doubt exciting stuff for Kojima fans.
As GamesBeat points out, there's no indication that any deal between Kojima and Microsoft bars Kojima Productions from releasing games on other platforms. At the moment, the studio is working on Death Stranding: Director's Cut, which was recently confirmed to be a PS5 exclusive.
