Hideo Kojima shuts down PlayStation acquisition rumors for good

Gaming auteur Hideo Kojima, of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding fame, has shut down PlayStation acquisition rumors for good, after clarifying an earlier post on social media.

Hideo Kojima, head of Kojima Productions, is the mind behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise and the genre-bending, love-it-or-hate sensation that was Death Stranding. After a rocky relationship with his parent company, Konami, the maker has been fiercely independent since.

This was briefly believed to have changed, however, when he tweeted out an image with Death Stranding being included amongst a sea of heavy hitters under a PlayStation Studios banner. Typically, this banner is only updated when the PlayStation Studios family grows.

Naturally, speculation ran wild with this image, with the ethos of ‘RedMakuzawa’ echoed by many: “Kojima Productions joining PlayStation Studios? You can’t just post this and not explain.”

Despite the initial confusion, Kojima quickly explained himself. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding,” he replied. “But Kojima Productions has been and will continue to be an independent studio.”

Keeping his cards close to his chest, Kojima has refused to be drawn out into further discussion about what the image might mean, or what the next moves are for his studio.

Along with rumors of an Xbox exclusive in the works, as well as a potential undisclosed Keanu Reeves project underway, it’s clear that there is a massive buzz around the next steps of the trailblazing game creator.

• Read More: League’s Arcane gets rave reviews from Metal Gear Solid’s Hideo Kojima

With massive gaming studios going on an undeniable rampage of acquisition recently, it’s no surprise that fans have been skeptical about Kojima’s declaration of independence. As shown in this graph from Statista, the last two years has seen five major purchases of small studios by AAA names. Each for billions of dollars at a time.

Acquisitions in the gaming industry have only skyrocketed in price over recent years.

With such enormous amounts of cash on the line, Kojima is issuing a multi-billion dollar tweet with his outright refusal to be bought. It’s also drawn direct comparison to Bluepoint Games, who made similar claims of independence days before being bought out by Sony.

• Read More: Nintendo respond with their own plans after Sony & Xbox acquisitions

While Kojima claims his team will remain independent for now, we all know things can change rapidly in this industry. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any further teasers in the coming days as we await news on his next steps.