Hideo Kojima shoots down Sony buyout rumor started by Hideo Kojima

pcgamer.com:

Hideo Kojima has denied a rumor that Sony is preparing to acquire Kojima Productions, saying that the whole thing is a «misunderstanding» started by a tweet posted by, uh, Hideo Kojima.

The buzz began earlier this week when, as noted by GamesRadar, Sony expanded the banner image on the PlayStation Studios website, a splice-up of iconic Sony videogame characters including Kratos, Aloy, and Deacon, to include Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding. Then, yesterday, Kojima himself tweeted the same image, complete with the PlayStation Studios logo:

pic.twitter.com/T0LINRiH4GApril 15, 2022

Predictably, a good number of followers on Twitter immediately seized upon the tweet as confirmation that Kojima Productions was about to become the next big acquisition. It's a reasonable assumption, really: The Death Stranding studio is no Activision Blizzard, but making Hideo Kojima a Sony exclusive would be a real coup. And Sony's been on something of a tear of its own lately, acquiring Bungie in January and Jade Raymond's Haven studio in March.

Sadly for PlayStation fans (but happily for everyone else), it was not to be. A couple of hours later, Kojima tweeted on his English account that Kojima Productions «will continue to be an independent studio.»

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS has been and will continue to be an independent studio. https://t.co/2M0n4ogRaaApril 15, 2022

So, why did Kojima tweet that unmistakably Sony-centric image? Maybe he's happy that Sony thinks so highly of Death Stranding, or maybe he's that much of a Sony super-fan himself. It's also possible that he was just having a little fun with the initial rumors sparked by the change in the PlayStation banner. Whatever the reason, he did not