The closure of Kojima Productions’ LA-based studio has now been confirmed by Konami, via a statement made to press. Rumours of the studio’s demise had been circulating since Monday evening.
Konami cites “the product development resources being restructured into a more centralized unit” as the reason for shutting the studio largely responsible for maintaining Metal Gear Online down. The number of jobs lost has not been confirmed, but has been estimated at around 20-35. At its peak, the LA studio was employing somewhere in the region of 50 or 60 people.
According to the same statement, Konami plans to continue to support Metal Gear Online and (of course) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The PC release of Metal Gear Online is still planned for January 2016.
What level of support this will now turn out to be remains to be seen.
