Kojima hires former Konami president to be Kojima Production’s first president

Kojima Productions’ first president has working experience with Hideo Kojima in that he also once worked for Konami. Shinji Hirano recently updated his LinkedIn Profile page to indicate he accepted the job offer as the man who tries to keep the ambitious developer in line.

Hirano previously held the position of President of Konami Digital Entertainment in both its European and American divisions. Given Kojima’s attempts to reach out to foreign developers and companies, it’s likely that he and Hirano have direct experience working together.

According to the update, Hirano started working at Kojima Productions from November, and he quit working at Konami in March shortly after Kojima Productions was officially announced.

Maybe Hirano is just the best man for the job, and only that

No doubt, many are going to interpret this as just another jab at Konami. Take that, corporate overlords!

Well, let’s just say for a minute that Hirano is the best man for the job, and this is in no way related to the romantic Konami/Kojima feud that gamers art still letting their imaginations run away with. He has experience working with Kojima, and he probably oversaw a good many of his video games. He knows how to talk to Kojima, keep him in check, convince him to adhere to budgets.

In all these regards, he probably the most qualified person to reign in Kojima’s ambitions and bring practicality and a smarter business angle to game development.

The fact that he worked at Konami? Incidental. Just take it at that and get over it.