It’s time for your weird internet rumour of the day. As you know, the impending release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is Kojima’s swansong – at least as far as his nearly 30 year-long partnership with Konami goes. Once The Phantom Pain is done, so is Kojima, leaving him as a free agent. What though, will he do next?
While many are expecting him to try his hand at a crowdfunded project, there are some strange rumours swirling that Chinese company Tencent is already in negotiations to bring Kojima on board for a game. The rumour comes courtesy of Chinese-language website MR Game (via Gearnuke), and suggests that one of Tencent’s executives wants to hire Kojima to develop brand new IP – and that negotiations for such have are already underway.
While you may not know the name Tencent, you’re likely already giving them money in some way, shape or form. They’re one of the largest investment companies in the world – with significant fingers in the pies of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Glu Games and mobile developer Pocket Gems. Most of the conglomerate’s “original” IP is in the form of microtranstaction-addled free to play games, and if that’s the sort of stuff they want Kojima to do, I suspect neither Kojima nor the very angry people on the internet will be very happy.
Kojima is hot property though – and I’m sure there are very many companies willing to offer him bucketfuls of cash for his unique perspective.
Last Updated: August 19, 2015
WitWolfy
August 19, 2015 at 08:34
TGS announcement Kojima productions is bought by SCEA. You saw it here first.
Umar
August 19, 2015 at 08:36
Tencent? WeChat guys? Didn’t even know they made games, of any sort. I hope Kojima continues to make games, would love to see what he’ll do next. Maybe he’ll make another Boktai game. Wild though, I never knew he produced the Boktai games and Lunar Knight.
Geoffrey Tim
August 19, 2015 at 08:39
I’d be down for another boktai…but I hate going outside.
Umar
August 19, 2015 at 08:42
Lol I was pretty blown away by the idea, until I realized I’m gonna have to play this game outside or halfway out my window. I’d be down for another one too though.
Geoffrey Tim
August 19, 2015 at 08:40
They have like, a 90% stake in League of Legends developer Riot games, own 12% of Activision, a minority (but sizeable) stake in Epic Games
they have many fingers in many pies.
Umar
August 19, 2015 at 08:45
12% of Activision!? Holy shizz, small percent, but still huge. Damn, I Naspers also has their fingers in Tencent. Thought they were mostly e-commerce.
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
August 19, 2015 at 10:44
Tencent accounts for the entire market cap of Naspers, the rest of Naspers assets eg Multichoice, ecommerce assets eg OLX, flipcart , Mail.ru etc trade at a negative value.
RinceThis
August 19, 2015 at 08:54
Because of Geoff I don’t trust the Chinese, stay away Kojima!
RinceThis
August 19, 2015 at 08:56
Much like Huawei, they are taking over the world! Which is also why we are soon to be teaching Chinese in South African schools. Second colonization coming up!
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 19, 2015 at 09:10
Not Chinese, Mandarin. You racist! Do you even know anything about China, china!? *run*
RinceThis
August 19, 2015 at 09:10
You better run! Ni da sha bi!
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 19, 2015 at 09:13
…
Dutch Matrix
August 19, 2015 at 09:02
Tencent sure sounds like a cheap company to work for. One Tomato Cheap Tomato. Soft Tomato. Hideo Tomato. Metal Tomato Solid.
Now what if this game turns out to be a dud? Would he still be all that hot property?
RinceThis
August 19, 2015 at 09:05
It won’t be a dud. @umarbastra:disqus will buy enough copies that it goes platinum in the first 5 seconds of release. On the 6th second Umar will release *trololo
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 19, 2015 at 09:09
And on the 7th second he’ll rest? Or would that be Rants?
RinceThis
August 19, 2015 at 09:11
0_O
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
August 19, 2015 at 10:40
And of course The 35% stake that Naspers owns in Tencent makes up their whole market cap, and Naspers makes up about 12% of the JSE, so in effect Tencent is 12% of the SA Stock market.
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
August 19, 2015 at 10:40
And of course The 35% stake that Naspers owns in Tencent makes up their whole market cap, and Naspers makes up about 12% of the JSE, so in effect Tencent is 12% of the SA Stock market.
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
August 19, 2015 at 10:40
And of course The 35% stake that Naspers owns in Tencent makes up their whole market cap, and Naspers makes up about 12% of the JSE, so in effect Tencent is 12% of the SA Stock market.