Earlier today Hideo Kojima uploaded a number of images of the Kojima Productions headquarters to social media, leading fans to think the video game developer was hinting at some kind of upcoming project or studio expansion.
In a tweet, Kojima said: "Today is the day we say goodbye to the entrance, the Ludens hallway, and the kitchen that have been our home for a little over five years. Many memories come to mind. Farewell," followed by a series of photos of the empty Kojima Productions office in Tokyo Japan.
Today is the day we say goodbye to the entrance, the Ludens hallway, and the kitchen that have been our home for a little over five years. Many memories come to mind. Farewell 😭🙏 pic.twitter.com/TONnpq7JXaMarch 31, 2022
Of course, if anybody else did this it would be easy to accept that the team is just moving studio locations. Not for Kojima fans though, who have grown increasingly curious of the studio head’s actions due to his reputation of being cryptic about his upcoming projects.
The most likely answer is that Kojima products is either downsizing - perhaps to accommodate for a rise in staff working at home due to the pandemic - or maybe even expanding.
The Death Stranding studio was previously looking to expand the team in a big way by undertaking a large hiring spree of up to 30 positions late last year. Everything from character artists, writers, level designers, project managers, and more were all in demand.
Fans of the Metal Gear designer’s work have other ideas though. As spotted in the comments of Kojima’s tweet, as well as various online forums, some people believe that Kojima Productions move could be somehow linked to an unannounced and upcoming Sony project.
While others are still making reference to the fact that Kojima was once rumoured to be linked to atmospheric horror game Abandoned, despite the game’s developers releasing a statement saying that this definitely wasn’t the case. Speaking of Abandoned, Blue Box Game Studio recently deleted a lot of tweets relating to the project from its Twitter account.
What we’re saying is that it’s unlikely that Kojima Productions’ studio move means anything more than the team upsizing or downsizing. Saying that though, the chances of Hideo Kojima surprising everyone out of the blue this time is low, but never zero.
If you’d like to know what things are confirmed to be on the way this year, take a look at our new games 2022 list.
