Geoff Keighley's teary tribute to Hideo Kojima during last night's The Game Awards may have been a touch over-the-top, but speaking with Glixel prior to the show, the host did reveal a little more about the luminary's predicament at Konami. Apparently, during the final stages of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's production, the series creator was forced to work alone in solitary confinement.
Here's the story, through the lens of Keighley: "He was locked in a separate room on a different floor than his development team for the final six months of development. He couldn't even talk to them – he had to talk through someone else. That's how that game was finished." Assuming that's true, it's quite eye-opening; we obviously all know that Kojima was badly treated by Konami, but that seems like no way to wrap up a multi-million dollar project.
Fortunately, Hideo's looking much happier these days: he collected his industry icon award last night, revealed a new trailer for Death Stranding, and is rocking some really impressive facial hair. All's well that ends well.
[source glixel.com]
Comments 35
"He couldn't even talk to them – he had to talk through someone else"
in other words Konami made it the way they wanted not the way Kojima did and this so Kojima couldn't interfere
what a bunch of a**hats
@FullbringIchigo Well... I imagine with six months to go the game was practically finished. It would have been balancing/bug fixing by that point, rather than core design work.
@FullbringIchigo Or, more likely, he was being a diva and wouldn't sacrifice anything in order to produce a profitable game, and they had to control him or he would sabatoge his own project by not focussing on delivery. Don't deify the guy. Konami cut him loose for a reason and it's not because they are insane.
@Mega-Gazz Bit of respect for the man who created their biggest IP, though, surely? He's made hit after hit after hit for them.
@Mega-Gazz agreed, Kojima knew there was no way people would think he was the bad guy in this situation no matter what actually happened.
Though it's worth mentioning Konami has seemed to drive some other creators out, Koji Igarashi for instance seemed to have a similar experience to Kojima in his final few months at Konami.
Dunno if it went this far necessarily though (solitary confinement), so that could lend some credibility to the theory Kojima's just a jerk of a dude to the company that gave him his career.
@get2sammyb the game wasn't finished. Mission 51 wasnt there which was suppose to be the end where you fought Liquid who had Sahelanthropus.
No wonder was never there if this is what happened
...next week on Hollyoaks!
Its a pity MGS was left on such a bad note.
In one way it was the best metal gear in terms of graphics and game mechanics. Sneaking around taking people out was the most satisfying of all the games in the series.
On the other hand the game was ruined by the story mode that was an absolute shambles from start to finish.
If Kojima was tucked away for the last 6 months then its almost certain that the actual base game was nearly complete and more or less what people purchased at this stage and its criminal he let it progress in the way it did.
Previous MGS's were maybe convoluted but atleast they were consistent and made sense in their own way. MGS V was like a scattergun approach to the story mode with tapes to fill out the story. Much the same as the shambolic method used by Destiny to pad out its story.
How much of that is actually true? Thats one side of the story there is so much bad blood blood between him and konami
@Mega-Gazz Except Konami have previous with treating it's staff poorly, Igarashi is another example because Konami seemed to think people didn't want more Castlevania, yet look at Bloodstained. Kojima was the one man that was keeping Konami relevant today. He even revived the Silent Hills IP in one demo then six other games failed to do so.
@get2sammyb if I'm right, then this was awkward corporate respect - meaning that where other people would have been shown the door they tolerated and worked with him as long as they could. Separating him would be a last resort to get the project on track but still not part ways with him.
I think treatments like this are the standard way of forcing people out of companies in Japan.
I mean, is there any proof of this beyond story telling? This is the same guy who created the MGS series, and constantly trolls people. I wouldn't put it above him to make up some crazy story to generate sympathy/hype for his new game.
Konami is disgusting..
@Mega-Gazz @Lolzified Are you guys for real or are just trolling? Konami with kojima: Metal gear solid 1 - 5, one of the highest rated series ever with the sales of 49 million copy, konami without kojima: Metal gear survive, a co-op zombie game with unknown character from mgs 5.
No matter what you do, you can't spin konami as a good guy in this situation.
One man does not make a company. You can not judge the output of Konami based on what is released next year you need to be looking 3 or 4 years then judge them. Konami will carry on and produce games. Its always tough when an influencial employee leaves a company but you evolve and move on which is what they are doing.
@wiiware @Kidfried It's not a gut feeling that he's a diva, it's a gut feeling to question what I'm told by anyone in this industry. Make no mistake, Konami is awful (and if ya'll don't watch Jim Sterling dumping on them every chance he gets, you should, he's great and has an episode of his show on a topic similar to this, the working conditions at Konami). They've massacred their franchises and alienated people to insane extents, and we're in agreement that doing what's described here isn't right and whatever Kojima really is like, it doesn't justify it.
I'm saying to not take what he says as 100% truth. Did you hear Geoff's speech? Made Kojima sound like a saint. I don't think he's lying, and I think he's authentic friends with Hideo, but like you said, it's one side.
(Konami's refusal to say anything of real note about this story doesn't help'em tho)
Treatment like this is not unusual in business in Japan, it's ashame it happen to Kojima.
[and they had to control him or he would sabatoge his own project by not focussing on delivery.]
What a load of balls, how long has Kojima been making games now and always delivered.
Whether it's true or not, I think we can all agree Konami is a joke.
@solocapers You echo my thoughts exactly. The way this guy is held in such esteem is frankly pretty weird.
He had enough time and money to produce a good game and I suspect Konami were sick of waiting for a finished product. Sadly whilst we got the best looking and playing game in the series it was an unfinished and convoluted mess.
Why konami? Just.....why? Especially since it's his last Metal Gear game.
Simply ridiculous to defend Konami. Another once great Japanese company that has now turned to complete crap. Sell Metal Gear to Sony, Castlevania to Nintendo and then just go in the background and be irrelevant, that's exactly what Konami deserves at this point.
@Bliquid Where to even start with that comment. It's actually pretty sickening.
This kind of nonsense will make me boycott Konami 's future releases if this is true as in the u.k this goes down pretty much as workplace discrimination and frankly they should be sued by Mr kojimasan
All we know if Kojima's side of the story, and we know that now because of all the legal crap Konami used to make his life hard.
No one should be defending Konami at this point it's clear at this point they have wronged Kojima. I'm just glad he is free to make game's how he wants because that's what Dev's are entitled to do.
More heavy hitters please, thank you!
Kojima is a little Be-otch plain and simple.
@Bliquid At least try to make some sense when you reply.
Apparently some people aren't aware of Konami's long record of treating employees like trash. Team Silent, Iga, the list goes on...
Regardless of what you think about Kojima himself, that doesn't justify the way he's been treated by them. It may just be one side of the story, but Konami isn't saying anything, nor defending themselves. That isn't making my opinion on them any better.
Kojima was a major part of the company and Metal Gear. I don't put him on a pedestal, but I do respect what he brings to the table, and the effort he and his team puts in. Metal Gear became a hit for a reason, and Zone of the Enders, Snatcher and his other works are cult classics for a reason. Why would a company want to treat someone like that badly enough to get him to leave? It's idiotic.
And if you don't like Kojima, you still shouldn't support Konami anyway. They've treated their other employees and franchises like garbage as well. The best we can get out of them are Pachinko machines or cash grabs.
@DerMeister Konami decided to focus on mobile games which cost little to produce but result in large profits in shorter timeframes. Think flappy bird. I mean, sure you probably think it's garbage but that guy got mad rich. I mean, less investment more profit shorter timeframe, who would say no?
Meanwhile Konami was on the other end of the scale creating works of art with a budget over 80MM (that figure is 5 months before release). It seems obvious that wasn't a good fit for their strategy. And when a person isn't going in the direction the company is, it is time to end the relationship.
As I speculated above, they probably tried hard to bring him in line to their strategy, but ultimately had to control sprawling costs.
I don't agree with their management style, but I do agree with the basic business decision to control cost and execute on a strategy that results in more profit.
I worry about the whole industry if games all start costing 80MM and need to sell unrealistic volumes just to break even ... because while people like Kojima and Miyazaki are artists, believe me when I say that none of these companies are charities and they will be cut-throat about profit.
@Mega-Gazz I actually forgot about the mobile games part.
I understand what you're saying, and game budgets ballooning up is a legitimate concern, I agree, but did it really need to come to this? All to save budget?
I'll admit that I wish we had more story to this than just a pro-Kojima point of view, but I still don't think that justifies the treatment he got, if it's all completely true.
How much more budget do you think could have been used in six months, provided the game hit the same release date? If it isn't too much, then they could have parted ways without all this hullabaloo once the game was released, couldn't they?
@Mega-Gazz The metal gear solid series is profitable, it costly to make but the the profit are great. And don't forget, it's konami that make kojima work on metal gear series, every metal gear thats he makes, the guys always says its the last metal gear he's going to make.
@Lolzified @GBMatthew The guy IS a diva, he earned it. When you make one of the best video games series ever (metal gear), you earned it. Also don't forget zone of the enders 1-2, boktai, snatcher, policenauts. He's up there with shigeru miyamoto on the legendary status. The difference is he's not making bad games yet (starfoxzero).
I think we're done here, seeing people defending konami is just too weird for me..
@DerMeister like I said, I don't agree with their management style. They should have separated him from the project or whatever they were trying to do with more grace.
@PlaytendoGuy this. So much this.
@wiiware I haven't seen one comment here defending Konami...
Atleast Konami have kept quiet regading the matter and have kept some self respect. Kojima always has to be the centre of attention. Can not wait to mouth off about how bad konami are.
@Lolzified Exactly, I think the people that hold him in such high esteem are unable to differentiate the difference between simply stating some differing opinions to their own of the man and defending Konami.
Here' s a surprise guys, not everyone thinks that Kojima is that good.
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