But at the same time, opening a studio in LA meant dealing with a few issues: competing with huge world-name AAA development studios for the talent and facing serious misunderstanding between Japanese and American teams of the studio. Even though Kojima stated that he doesn't see Tokyo and LA offices as two different studios, they aren't virals. Different workflows and, mostly, different cultures played a huge role in the life of the studio and become a problem.
Working with their own engine definitely has plenty of advantages. As many developers say, the Fox Engine helped to learn a lot about the game development, let them see how actually advanced it was, compared to other engines. The problem with the use of Engine became relevant for LA designers since many comments were in Japanese, and the Engine wasn't set up for non-technical designers.
To read the whole interview with former Kojima Productions staff, check here.
