Kojima Productions' Ken-Ichiro Imaizumi ends 20-year partnership with Kojima to join Tencent
Death Stranded.
Kojima Productions' founding member, Ken-Ichiro Imaizumi, is rumoured to have left the studio to join Tencent Europe.
As reported by our friends at VGC, it's thought the veteran Metal Gear Solid producer parted ways with the company at the end of last year after 20 years alongside Hideo Kojima. He oversaw Death Stranding and has worked on every Metal Gear Solid release since 2001's Sons of Liberty.
Neither Kojima nor Imaizumi have commented publicly on the reasons for his departure, but it's thought Imaizumi has joined the Chinese megacorp's Amsterdam office.
Death Stranding developer Kojima Productions recently partnered with a German techwear company to develop J1A-GTKP, a new outerwear jacket inspired by its latest release. The new design was seemingly created as a one-off for Hideo Kojima by designer Errolson Hugh - but a limited run briefly appeared for sale for a cool €1752 (that's around £1500 in UK money or $1900+ Stateside). I say briefly because, despite the hefty price tag, it sold out almost instantaneously.
If the model pictured looks familiar, that's because Hugh themselves was one of many of Kojima's pals that popped up during the game.
Following the release of Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima revealed he's watching horror movies again with a view to making "the scariest horror game".
In a tweet on his personal Twitter account, Kojima admitted that whilst developing P.T. - the playable teaser that turned out to be a secret announcement for an all-new Silent Hill game, Silent Hills - he rented Thai horror The Eye but it was "too scary to finish watching". He also admitted that he was so scared by the cover, he "rented the disc only".
