Ken Imaizumi is a longtime collaborator with Hideo Kojima. He produced Metal Gear Solid 4, both Metal Gear Solid V installments, and, most recently, Death Stranding. According to South China Morning Post, he has now joined Tencent as the game arm’s production director.
Tencent also told the publication that Halo 4 lead designer Scott Warner will lead the company’s gaming studio TiMi Studios in North America. The company also confirmed Imaizumi’s hiring to SCMP.
While still at Konami, Imaizumi got involved on Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance before going on to produce the main title sequences for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. He’s been one of Kojima’s closest collaborators and co-founded the latest, independent iteration of Kojima Productions.
Imaizumi also made a funny appearance during Conan O’Brien’s visit to Kojima Productions during the making of Death Stranding (that’s Imaizumi on the left).
Website VGC first reported last November that Imaizumi had left Kojima Productions.
Japanese websites also noticed that Imaizumi had removed Kojima Productions from his Twitter account.
According to Hachima, this screen shot is from November 28, 2019.
This one is from May 19, 2020.
Kotaku reached out to Imaizumi for comment but did not hear back prior to publication.