“You enter through Phase One. […] It starts with our independence, in a small four-and-a-half-tatami room.”
Kojima said Phase One of BEYOND THE STRAND, the Kojima Productions tenth-anniversary exhibition, began with the studio’s independence in a small four-and-a-half-tatami room.
To launch Kojima Productions after going independent in December 2015, Kojima rented an office of under nine square meters and conducted an international search for staff, software tools, and engines while the studio began production on a new game.
In 2026 Kojima was scheduled to give a talk at the Game Developers Conference about his fateful decision a decade ago to go independent after a messy breakup with Konami, but he withdrew without offering an explanation; Kojima Productions announced he would not attend and said that some members of the studio would still present at the event.
“We've taken a first step, a giant leap in the entertainment industry.”
“People may not use them, but I want them to feel cared for when they're here.”
“As far as digital contents go, we basically only had a naked Norman, a naked Lou, a beach and a whale. And well, that reflected the state that Kojima Productions was in. We were naked.”