Kojima wants to stay independent until he dies

Prominent game studios are being scooped up by bigger companies left and right these days, but it doesn't sound like Kojima Productions will be one of them any time soon.

While chatting on his Brain Structure podcast, Hideo Kojima himself got on the topic of studio acquisitions and revealed that he's already received lucrative offers for his studio Kojima Productions. However, the acclaimed video game director also made it pretty dang clear that he doesn't intend on selling his studio - not while his heart's still beating, that is.

"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," Kojima said. "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 will ever accept those offers."

When you think of "ridiculously high" offers to buy video game companies, its natural to suspect money bags Microsoft, with its $70b Activision Blizzard buyout. However, Kojima himself got everyone talking about PlayStation potentially buying Kojima Productions earlier this year when he tweeted out a picture of the PlayStation Studios banner seemingly without context. He quickly clarified that "Kojima Productions has been and will continue to be an independent studio."

In the same podcast episode, Kojima also shut down recent claims that a Death Stranding sequel was in the works for Google Stadia but was ultimately scrapped. 

"The rumor that Death Stranding, moreover a sequel, was in the works to be an exclusive title for Google is unfounded, and Phil Harrison ultimately rejecting that is quite impossible. I've never once said anything to Phil about wanting to create a Death Stranding sequel. I don't know who pulled this information, [or] from where."

Find out which of Kojima's projects made our list of the best horror games of all time.