Kojima: Peace Walker and Rising teams "are not good friends."

• by Travis Moses
• September 02, 2009 00:00 AM PST

Kojima has a civil war on his hands between the two Metal Gear Solid teams.

According to Hideo Kojima, the two separate teams working on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: Rising "are not really good friends." In a GamePro exclusive interview with Kojima at GamesCom, the creator of the Metal Gear Solid franchise said the reason they are not good friends is because the Rising team has access to more money and is working with higher-end technology and hardware specs. "That's the one reason why they are not good friends," said Kojima.

Is the Peace Walker PSP team envious of the Rising team? Pretty much. "If you could imagine the PSP team looking at the Rising team," explained Kojima, "they have all the money and specs."

Kojima didn't seem frustrated with the competitive team dynamics; in fact it was quite comical to him. "It's interesting for me to see the team members act in this way," laughed Kojima, "This was never before because it was always just one small team. Now we are much bigger."

GamePro says that as long as no fistfights break out, a little competition never hurt anybody. You can read the final moments of our interview with Hideo Kojima below for his full thoughts on the inter-office warring. What's more is the cover story of GamePro's November issue is Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and includes an update on Rising. GamePro Magazine subscribers will be getting their issues in a couple weeks.

This picture makes me laugh because after three attempts at getting the camera to focus properly and flash, Kojima is no longer smiling. And I have a recovering black eye. LOL.

How is the progress on Metal Gear Solid: Rising going?

KOJIMA: We're at an experiment level right now. We're doing a lot of experiments for Rising. But let me give you a hint at what's happening at KJP right now. I said this at GDC, as Kojima Productions, and for the Metal Gear Solid series as well, we always want to go to the next step beyond. And how we go up a step is really a big job actually. But what we're doing right now is making totally new, not just an overhaul, engines and A.I.s and things like that. Even the management and team formations that we have at Kojima Productions, we are changing this around. The core of it is, of course, the Rising team. So they're doing a lot of high-level stuff with great staffs. And that doesn't mean the guys who are making PSP are the shitty staffs...it's not that. However, we have the core team who is doing real high-level experiments and alongside we have the PSP team, which are not really good friends right now, but in Kojima Productions and with Rising that is what's happening right now.

The reason why I say they are not good friends is because the PSP is working day and night to make it even better than MGS4, but of course they can't do it because of a lot of restrictions. On the other hand, the Rising team is using loads of money and loads of capacity and hardware specs. If you could imagine the PSP team looking at the Rising team saying, they have all the money and specs. That's the one reason why they are not good friends.

It's interesting for me to see the team members act in this way. This was never before because it was always just one small team. Now we are much bigger. So it's really interesting for me to watch the team right now.

So there's an internal competition between the two teams?

KOJIMA: Well, we are creating a trailer for PSP like crazy. We give our best and think we did great, it looks great. But when we look at the Rising team we say, should we really keep creating PSP? Because the Rising graphics are so high quality.

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