'Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom of Pain' news & rumors: creator Hideo Kojima part ways with Konami; will focus on mobile gaming?

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Popular game creator Hideo Kojima leaves Konami this moth after tendering his resignation from the company where he worked for 29 years.

Hideo Kojima, who is the creator of the "Metal Gear" franchise walked out of Konami's Tokyo office for the last time last Oct. 9. According to the report by the New Yorker, a ceremony was held on the same day at Kojima Productions studio and was attended by many guests. However, a source told the outlet that Konami's president Hideki Hayakawa and CEO Sadaaki Kaneyoshi may not have been in attendance because they weren't seen by the source.

There have been rumors in the past that Kojima was set to leave after launching "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain," according to Engadget. In another article by the website, it was revealed that the game was supposed to have a third chapter and more characters as evidenced by some files in the PC version of the game. The report added that game studios frequently delete some materials to make way for something else, whether it's to make it shorter or to make it to its set release date and more. It is unknown how much material did not make it to the final release.

"Silent Hills," which was another project by Kojima with Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro was cut earlier this year by the company to which the latter found "confusing" as the materials for the story was promising. A playable teaser for "Silent Hills" was downloaded over 1 million times and received praise from players and critics alike.

According to a report by Nikkei, Konami may be reorganizing their business model and focus on mobile games instead.

"We are living in a social game age," said Kagemasa Kozuki, founder and chairman of Konami. He added that the company will "Make more efforts to create social games."

The report added that major changes were made after the company released "Dragon Collection," a mobile game in 2010. The development was said to be cheap but was a hit among casual gamers and made hundreds of millions of yen for the company which made up of 40% of its earnings as stated by their fiscal year sales this year.

A recent article by Anime News Network reports that Konami has denied Kojima's resignation from the company. They instead said that Kojima and others are taking a vacation.

According to The Huffington Post Japan, the company said in a phone interview: "The newest game in the [Metal Gear Solid] series shipped in September, so the development team, including Kojima, are currently taking an extended vacation."

"In cases of big titles that are developed over many years like Metal Gear Solid, taking long vacations after the game has shipped is normal," the company explained.