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Konami Officially Closes Its Kojima Productions Los Angeles Studio
Following speculation and rumor, Konami has confirmed the closure of the Los Angeles arm of Kojima Productions.
In a statement to Polygon, Konami confirmed the closure writing the following:
Konami has made the decision to close its Los Angeles Studio, effective immediately, due to the product development resources being restructured into a more centralized unit. This facility contributed to the recent Metal Gear Solid games. Konami will continue its operations to support all Metal Gear Solid titles, including the recently launched Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online. Metal Gear Online is still scheduled to release for PC Steam in January 2016.
The studio's creation was announced in March 2013 and officially opened in in September of the same year. Konami held a ceremony when it opened in September 2013 where Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear art director Yoji Shinkawa drank sake from square wooden cups and toasted to the venture's future success.
Despite Konami's restructuring and the departure of Hideo Kojima from the studio, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has been a critical and commercial success for the publisher shipping 5 million copies and garnering excellent reviews.
Update: Immediately after publication, we received a response to our request for comment from 24 hours ago. The comment we received mirrors the one that was provided to other outlets.
[Source: Polygon]
Our Take
It's always sad to hear about studio closures and this news is made exponentially worse by how drawn out Konami's announcements have been regarding the fate of Kojima Productions, and its head Hideo Kojima. We offer good luck to all those affected.
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