Earlier this year, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima had a very public falling-out with publisher Konami. Kojima Productions was dissolved, Kojima’s name was sanded off Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and Silent Hills, the very promising game Kojima was working on with Guillermo del Toro, was canceled.
Despite all the acrimony, Kojima was, apparently, still working at Konami until recently, putting the final touches on Metal Gear Solid V. According to The New Yorker, Kojima actually packed up his office and left Konami for reals on October 9, bringing a 29-year relationship to an end. The author of the New Yorker article even provided a picture from Kojima’s farewell party.
Here is a photograph of Kojima's farewell party on October 9th at Konami, which Konami claims no knowledge of: pic.twitter.com/xgRUoYs5qt
— Simon Parkin (@SimonParkin) October 20, 2015
Seems pretty cut-and-dried, but of course, nothing is ever simple with Konami. According to a Japanese interview translated by Kotaku, Konami is claiming Hideo Kojima is still employed by the company, and just “taking a long time off work.” Here’s the full quote…
“Currently, Kojima is listed as a company employee. Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid V and are taking a long time off from work. Because the development time for console games is so long and fatigue builds up, it’s common for employees to take extended periods of time off when development is finished.”
Uh… huh. To be clear, I’m almost 100 percent sure this is bullsh*t. Why would Konami cancel Silent Hills and dissolve Kojima Productions if Kojima was just going on vacation? This would seem to be a case of Konami desperately denying the obvious while they try to woo Kojima back, which is pretty sad, but considering the boatloads of cash Metal Gear Solid V has made, you can’t exactly blame them.
via The New Yorker & Kotaku