Hideo Kojima Creates Los Angeles Metal Gear Studio

Kojima Productions, the development studio led by industry veteran Hideo Kojima, has announced that it is creating a new team in Los Angeles, California, the first office outside of Japan since the original studio was founded, in Tokyo, about seven years ago.

At the moment, the Los Angeles studio is hiring level designers, graphic engine and program tool developers, artists and gameplay programmers and it seems that once the team is complete it will work on an action-oriented video game.

Hideo Kojima is one of the most important Japanese video game developers, but he has always expressed a fascination with Western developers and has sought to work with them and see how they evaluate his titles and franchises.

Kojima Productions is now supervising the development process of the upcoming Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which is being created by Platinum Games.

The game will be launched on the Xbox 360, only on Western markets, and on the PlayStation 3 during February 2013.

It will star Raiden and will be action-driven, with limited attention for the stealth of the core series and a lot of sword-driven gameplay.

If Revengeance is a hit, development duties for a sequel might be handled by the new Los Angeles team.

Kojima Productions has recently announced that it was also working on Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, a new game that will use the traditional gameplay elements of the series, focusing on sneaking, silent takedowns and ethical conundrums.

The new game uses the Fox Engine that Kojima has created for the next generation of home consoles.

It will also use an open-world structure for the first time in the Metal Gear Solid series.

Publisher Konami has not said when the new game might be launched, but it will apparently be offered on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.