Kojima Productions has just 4 staff, but 'big games' are on the horizon

- Hideo Kojima

In case it wasn't already obvious from his contract with Sony to produce a PlayStation 4 exclusive, we should expect a "big game" from the newly independent Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions.

"... My role in this world is to keep on making big games for as long as I can. That is the mission I’ve been given in life," Kojima told the New Yorker in a new interview. 

The article also reveals that the new Kojima Productions has no office and four staffers, which include longtime collaborators Kenichiro Imaizumi, who has served as producer on the Metal Gear Solid titles for many years, and Yoji Shinkawa, who's responsible for the series' iconic art direction.

As for Konami, which has moved away from triple-A console games to chase mobile success -- which is apparently what lead to the schism between Kojima and his longtime employer, he offered this rebuke: "If you’re only focused on the profits immediately in front of you, the times will leave you behind. It becomes impossible to catch up again."

For his part, a love of Western culture allows him to make globally successful games; that sentiment is much the same as that of Tetsuya Takahashi, executive director of Xenoblade Chronicles X. He said, in a new interview, that his preference for Western culture helps him create games that have global appeal. 

Not coincidentally, the two developers delivered the two open-world, triple-A games out of Japan this year -- and these two games were notable enough to end up on Gamasutra staffers' top 5 games of the year lists (Xenoblade here, and Metal Gear Solid V here.)