Kojima Productions to keep new studio under 100 staff

Hideo Kojima’s new independent studio will stay lean to keep its developers keen, the iconic Japanese developer has revealed.

In a roundtable discussion, reported by Gamereactor, the newly professionally single Metal Gear Solid creator stated that he would aim to keep the headcount under half of that at his former Konami-owned division.

"I’m aiming to keep the staff less than 100 people," Kojima said via a translator.

"At the time of the Metal Gear Solid the staff was over 200 people, something like this.”

The reason behind this, he elaborated, is to maintain a close relationship with his team.

“[I] want to connect to the developers directly,” Kojima explained. “So it will be around 100 people, but not more. Keep it that size. 100 people is max."

Kojima also found the time to joke about the importance of other aspects of a studio, including the kitchen facilities.

"I’ve found that at any studio the kitchen is very important,” he said.

“I saw at DICE in Stockholm they had 40 microwaves, and also there’s so many coffee makers, and I understood that that is very important."

Kojima recently revealed that his studio’s upcoming debut PS4 exclusive would be built using a third-party engine for the sake of building the ‘big title’ quickly.