Kyuu said:
They helped him establish a AAA studio from the ground up, funded expensive projects, gave him first party tools, and allowed him to keep his IP's and do whatever the he wanted including porting his game to other platforms like Xbox. They spoiled him alright. Funding a 3rd underperforming video game with limitless budget isn't smart business. Microsoft is only in this for desperate PR points and we don't know if they'll commit. It could easily end up like Scalebound (which probably didn't cost anywhere near a Kojima game), and I very much doubt they would continue working with him after making two overbudget games that take forever to make and not sell well enough on their platform. Nintendo funded Bayonetta 3 and 3, but these games didn't cost a fortune and were exclusive to their platforms. Kojima was expecting endless funding while keeping the project multiplatform seemingly against Sony's will lol. Sony isn't a charity. Kojima is an over ambitious spoiled moneypit and his modern games didn't quite inherit the quality or appeal of Metal Gear. Sony gave him over a decade of support and creative freedom, and he didn't use it wisely. People shifting the blame onto Sony are engaging in console wars or sentimentalism. They're just not obliged to fund him forever. Regardless, as a big fan of Metal Gear I do look forward to Physint. I'm glad Microsoft is taking Sony's place in funding him, but there are countless talented developers out there who won't get a fraction of the privilege that he enjoys, and are able to produce amazing video games without Sony's or Microsoft's or Nintendo's backing. If Kojima is efficient, he wouldn't need any major company's backing for his games to continue existing. It's all business and no one owes him shit. |
That's a very good post, even as I do think Death Stranding was surpringly good, it indeed lacked commercial appeal.
That being said, they funded 2 games for him, and gave him one of their best engines and support to develop them, they didn't achieve nearly as much return as they were hoping, they didn't keep the IP. They did a lot for him, yes.
So why proudly announce PhysInt as a SoP show finisher? It's not like Kojima was suddenly a costly and quirky guy, they have been working with him for his entire life, and directly for a decade now. So why fund the third project, commit to it publicly when it was in very early concept stages, and then pull the rug?
Sony has been doing spreadsheet decisions on a whim, Kojima said it actually happened pretty much right when they were about to announce the physical media ending plan.
Kojima may have his share of blame, as was the case with MGS V in the Konami situation, but this is yet another stupid decision from Sony that can't evaluate anything other than how to show bigger number during the next few quarters to please its investors.
What Kojima is responsible in the whole picture for Playstation's success since the PS1 days, and the kind of fresh air it can provide to AAA is insanely valuable, and even as you are right its business and they don't have to please someone forever, it's such a stupid decision that, once again, harms their brand image, that if you has already commited to it publicly, you at least go for it this one more time. That'll likely be Kojima's last game, he has very must indicated it himself, just why choose to pull the rug now?
