Metal Gear Solid creator and director Hideo Kojima has finally split with Konami, according to Japanese financial publication The Nikkei.

The report, translated from Japanese, explains that the developer will break with the publisher to begin a new studio. His new company will apparently retain an unspecified number of former Kojima Productions staff, and is in talks with Sony to develop for PlayStation platforms.

Kojima and Konami have been in conflict for the better part of 2015. It began publicly with the cancellation of the developer's Silent Hill project, and escalated as Konami removed Kojima's name from marketing material for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

At the Game Awards 2015 Kojima was said to have been barred by Konami from attending, and personally accepting any awards on behalf of his studio's latest release.

Good news all round.

Hopefully Konami will go die and PlayStation buys the MGS franchise, giving it back to Kojima (in my dreams).

Good. He's too good of a director to stick around a sinking ship.