Sony’s Presence in Both the Japanese & American Markets
Slowly over his 29 years at Konami, Kojima had been making Metal Gear Solid games that appealed more and more to a western market while still continuing to be relevant in his native Japanese market. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was the culmination of years of honing what it means to make an open-world action game, and it resulted in a magnum opus of a swan song for the series as we know it.
Now with a foot firmly planted in the Japanese conscious and the western conscious, it was important for Kojima to align himself with a company that maintains the same level of relevance in the respective markets. Japanese companies such as Capcom, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and Koei Tecmo don’t hold a candle to the level of western influence that Sony does. While more western publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, and Microsoft don’t garner much attention from the Japanese market.
Sony is the perfect middle ground for Kojima to remain relevant in both markets.
