I must say, these news are quite shocking to me. Konami have been publishing Kojima made Metal Gear games as long as I've been gaming, it's been a very important franchise to me so I for one will be following any coming events related to this closely. What is clear is that Kojima will have to move on after MGSV and that Konami will still continue to make Metal Gear games after Kojima has left, in fact they're hiring new developers right now to make a new Metal Gear series.
Personally, and I'm quite surprised to say this, I feel kinda positive about this. I mean, of course it's a shame when a creator have to give up his creation and overall when someone important is let go. However I feel that this could be good because Kojima can finally move on and do something new, I don't think he wanted to make Metal Gear games for the rest of his life anyway. Also, lets be honest, Kojima wouldn't have been able to pass on the franchise to another team without being very involved himself yet again. I am eager to see what he will do now, even if it's unlikely that it'll be the new Silent Hills that was announced last year...
Furthermore, while new Metal Gear games might lack the same attention to detail and complex story, the gameplay alone might be enough to make them worthwhile. I'm quite curious to see what a new team could do with the franchise, my only wish is that they leave Kojima's story untouched, sure a cameo or two might be fun but I don't really want to play as Big Boss or Solid Snake again in a game that isn't made by Kojima. So far Metal Gear have been like pizza, even when it's a bad pizza it's still good food. Hopefully that holds true.
To finish this off, it's relevant to point out that this isn't the first time that this has happened, this could mean a big decline in quality (Resident Evil) or that the franchise end up completely disappearing (Mega Man). It's fair to be very skeptical about the whole ordeal, I know I am even though I'm curious to see what happens next. I suppose what I'm trying to say that good things can come out of this, a new take on the Metal Gear franchise, Kojima get to have his creative mind working at full capacity again... And we'll always have plenty of MGS games to replay until the end of times, with that, lets give Metal Gear Solid a good salute!
