Iga left Konami

After being MIA for years, Koji Igarashi (also known as Iga) left the company he worked for more than 20 years. He is famous for his work with the Castlevania video game series for most of the 90's and 2000's and responsible for creating the masterpiece that is Symphony of the Night.  Iga will go independent and "make the kind of games I really want to make – the same kind I think fans of my past games want as well" as he said in an official release. This seems to follow what happened a while back with Keiji Inafune (of the Mega Man series).

Symphony of the Night is my all-time favorite game, I still play it to this day. The Lords of Shadow reboot was not bad but not very impressive. I would have wanted another 2-D Metroidvania-style release (even in handheld) produced by Iga, but looks like this won't happen. It will be interesting to see what kind of concepts he will develop now that he is free from the limitations he had on Konami. Could this be the rise of a 2-D spiritual successor to the Castlevania series? Will frecent colaborators such as artist Ayami Kojima and composer Michiru Yamane be part of this. And what will happen to Konami? Besides Metal Gear, their franchises are either developed by other studios... or dead.

Best of luck Iga. I look forward to his next project!

Source
Iga image taken from: wired.com