Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima formally leaves Konami after nearly three decades

Hideo Kojima, one of Japan’s most-famous game developers and the creator of the long-running Metal Gear series, has formally left Konami Digital Entertainment, according to the Japanese publication Nikkei.

The Nikkei article said that Kojima plans to start a new game studio. Kojima published his first Metal Gear game in 1987. Since that time, 29 more Metal Gear games have appeared over many platforms. That’s a rare and storied achievement for any video game creator.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.