Kojima explains that he offered no payment for the use of Decima, but rather, received the engine via a more surprising method.
“Usually when you go to use, buy or borrow an engine, someone will say, “Lend us your name,” or of course ask for payment.
We had no contract with Guerrilla Games, but when we met them they suddenly gave us a box, a very pretty box.
When we opened the box, there was a USB dongle inside that had the source code for the engine.”
With no contract in place, Guerrilla Games’ handed over the keys to the City,
the source code of all the studio’s hard work over the years, “they simply said, “Mr. Kojima please use this engine,” and we thought these people are incredible.”
Although Horizon Zero Dawn‘s developer was keen for Kojima and his studio to use its Decima Engine, there was one stipulation –
that the pair developed the engine together, “there was onecondition though, that Kojima Productions doesn’t just use
the engine, but that we develop the engine together with Guerrilla Games, that it should be a collaborative effort.
So we were really blown away by their stance on this and being so open with the engine and we thought “Wow, these are the people we have to work with.”