Kojima gives his thanks to Konami

In an interview with website Toyokeizai, Kojima talked about his days at Konami, where he worked for 30 years before creating his own studio in December of 2015. Kojima says he’s grateful to Konami for letting him create what he wanted to create.

“What I’m grateful to Konami for is that when I proposed something I wanted to make, they let me make it. Conversely, I wasn’t bound by them saying, ‘You need to do it like this.’”

When he joined the company in around 1987 the development team he was in consisted of only five people. During those days he only slept three hours today, but because of those small teams creators had a good overview of the game development progress, which isn’t so common anymore these days.

Kojima says that when he turned in a proposal for a game he wanted to make, describing the aim, development time and staff needed, he’d get the green light. “It was like that from when I joined to the end. Because of that, I’m the person I am today.”

Source: Toyokeizai, Kotaku