Kojima Productions president Hideo Kojima has acquired more former Konami employees to help develop his company's first game, "Death Stranding." The new recruits include a senior character artist and a cinematic artist.
According to Gaming Bolt, Kojima Productions has hired former Konami game developers Masaki Saito and Jackie Tan. The company also hired senior character designer Chihoko Uchiyama and cinematic artist Yasuhiro Kawakami.
Another brilliant acquisition for the "Death Stranding" team is Akio Sakamoto. This person is known for his hand in developing the FOX game engine, and as such he will help Kojima Productions utilize the full potential of the Decima Engine to produce the game.
With former Konami president Shinji Harano getting hired late in 2016, the "Death Stranding" development team now consists of 10 ex-Konami employees. This includes Hideo Kojima himself.
It was expected for Kojima to look for former Konami employees, according to Game Rant. After all, despite his bad experience working for the company, it is not the employees that contributed to it. "Death Stranding" is also a fairly ambitious game, with its photorealistic graphics, which means that Kojima would want people whose abilities he is familiar with to work alongside him.
It is also expected for some of Konami's employees to abandon it, if past reports were to be given credit for. Konami was rumored to have poor working conditions, which include questionable practices such as aggressive demotion as well as sudden department transfers. The situation was never confirmed, unfortunately, but if it is true, the sudden switch to Kojima Productions seem more logical.
Nevertheless, "Death Stranding" will undergo its full swing development phase this year, and with the aid of these new hires, fans will now have an idea of what to expect for the game. Kojima still continues teasing the game through trailers that spark interest among fans, especially those fond of theorizing.
"Death Stranding" is currently being developed for the PS4. Here is the latest trailer for the game: