According to a rumour doing the rounds at the minute, Konami has closed down its LA Studio which was responsible for developing Metal Gear Online.
The rumours emerged last night on Twitter, including a tweet from 3D Realms co-founder George Broussard who claims that he got told that the studio had been shut down, leading to a roughly 35 job losses.
BREAKING: Rumor tells me that Konami has shut down the Kojima Productions LA studio, taking with it approx 35 jobs, just before Xmas.
— George Broussard (@georgeb3dr) November 3, 2015
Konami’s LA Studio formed part of Kojima Productions and was created to help develop Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain along with its multiplayer feature, Metal Gear Online. The studio employed around 50 people however in the build up to Metal Gear Solid 5’s release, those numbers were cut. Following Kojima’s exit from Konami, who still insist he is only on holiday, Konami renamed the studio to Konami Los Angeles Studio at the same time that all traces of Hideo Kojima’s involvement in the game was being erased from covers of The Phantom Pain.
Eurogamer has claimed that sources that are close to the matter have confirmed to them that the closure is true. They also state that work on Metal Gear Online was transferred from the LA studio to Konami’s Japanese studio just before Metal Gear Solid V was released.
Metal Gear Online was released on October 6th and became available for console gamers, however the PC version of the game won’t get the online component until early 2016.
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I’m sure Sean and Michael will have a field day with this info on Konami making even more crappy business decisions.