Kojima Productions founding member and loyal business partner to Hideo Kojima, Ken-Ichiro Imaizumi, reportedly, left the company in order to join Tencent Europe.
The rumor of the split between Imaizumi and Kojima Productions began as early as late year, as per VGC.
Imaizumi has been working alongside Hideo Kojima for the last 20 years before the split.
During his time with Kojima, Imaizumi played an essential role in the creation of the Metal Gear series since Sons of Liberty.
He left the company as previously one of the producers of Death Stranding soon after its successful launch.
Rumors claim that Ken-Ichiro Imaizumi’s departure from the company is due to a discrepancy with the other directors.
There is no official word yet to confirm the news from neither Kojima nor Imaizumi.
Nevertheless, it is suspected that the latter having already changed ship, effectively joining Tencent’s Amsterdam office.
Exclusive Death Stranding Anorak
Meanwhile, in an old Kojima Productions news. The company was, reportedly, in collaboration with a German techwear company to create a Death Stranding-inspired water-proof jacket.
Dubbed the ‘J1A-GTKP,’ the anorak will be greatly reminiscent of Sam Bridge’s jacket and will come at a hefty price tag of €1752. That’s an amount tantamount to $1900+ in the United States and £1500 in the UK.
The said business initiative is slated to be a one-off between Hideo Kojima and designer, Errolson Hugh.
Despite the high cost, the said project was a success when it saw the products running out of stock once selling started.
Fans who had played Death Stranding will find the model used for the anorak’s promotion to be familiar. That is because the said person is also the same individual used to appear in the game. One among many of Hideo Kojima’s acquaintances.
An Upcoming Horror Project?
Speaking of Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind the creation of P.T. (Playable Teaser) is, reportedly, into horror movies. P.T. was subsequently revealed as a secret announcement to a then-developing Silent Hill, titled ‘Silent Hills.’
The notion subsequently giving rise to speculations that Kojima Production’s next project would be a horror title. One that, if true, would rival the canceled project with Konami.
In a revelation that many had found surprising, Kojima revealed one interesting aspect about the creation of P.T. That is, in is his experience of renting a certain ‘Thai’ horror movie titled ‘The Eye.’ The movie he rented as a ‘disc only’ and one he ‘could not finish’ out of ‘fear.’
It seems Kojima had mistaken the film for a Thai production whereas it’s technically a collaborative project between Hong Kong and Singapore. Although part of the movie’s scenes were indeed taken from Thailand.
Image used courtesy of YouTube/GameNews PlayStation