There have been rumours that Hideo Kojima is leaving Konami. Those rumours, claims Metal Gear singer and voice actor Donna Burke, are allegedly true.
Donna Burke sang the breathtaking ” Heavens Divide” for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. More recently, she sings “Sins of the Father” for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and voiced the iDroid in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. A talented singer, she’s also cut tracks for an array of games and anime for various companies, and she continues to release solo albums. Burke is not a Konami employee.
Her claims didn’t come out of the blue. Recently, Snake’s Japanese voice actor Akio Otsuka tweeted that people should not cancel their Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain pre-orders. Via Twitter, Burke retweeted this and also wrote this in a separate tweet:
Another Twitter replied to Burke that he hoped Kojima “goes on to greater heights” to which she answered, “Oh he will and the team will too but that hasn’t made it at all pleasant.”
Even though things seem very, very strange between Konami and Kojima, Otsuka and Burke continue to urge fans to support the game, which the creator apparently is still involved with.
Continuing, Burke wrote, “They are still working for sure and the game is being tested now and some bits finished off to make it awesome.” We’ve heard the claims Burke is making before. They are not new. However, this is the first that someone involved with Metal Gear Solid V has commented in a public forum to this extent.
Hideo Kojima has been quiet, and his video podcast was cancelled. In the past, Kojima was an active Twitter user and often uploaded photos. Now, his Japanese account seems to be used only for retweets. Kojima is uncharacteristically silent.
Konami acknowledged that internet use for Metal Gear staff has been restricted, but would not comment on whether Kojima was a full-time employee or a contract one. Previously, he was an exec at Konami, but doesn’t appear to be one anymore. If true, going from top brass to a contract employee, having your production company shuttered, and seeing your name removed from something you created would be one hell of a demotion and a humiliating thing for anyone to go through.
Burke also claimed that the rumour about “power struggles within the Konami” is accurate.
Konami has denied Burke’s remarks, telling Videogamer.com that the claim Kojima was fired is “categorically incorrect.”
Comments
9 responses to “The Kojima Rumours Are True, Says Metal Gear Singer”
The amount of the coverage this saga is getting, plus the refusal of anyone in a position of authority to speak openly just reeks of Kojima-san trolling.
I do agree but that would just be a terrible way to go.
I was reminded of something else.
Another scenario when it seemed like a really popular person inexplicably got the boot, and everyone thought “is this just a long complicated troll? Could [popular person] actually still have his job and we’re all being set up for the punchline?”
Then I remembered, that person was David Hayter. The game at the core of the fuss? Metal Gear Solid 5.
Coincidence?
Absolutely.
I’m confused. Do you think that Hayter’s actually got the boot? Because I’m still 95% sure he’s gonna feature in TPP.
Well if he does I’ll take my hat off and write BRAVO KOJIMA a whole bunch of times
Perhaps he wasn’t fired, but instead given a horrible choice where resigning was the better option.
That’s generally how it works in Japan.
If Kojima is out of Konami, then they just lost the last worthwhile asset they had. The way things are now, The Phantom Pain is going to be remembered as the last worthwhile game associated with Konami. Going on how the rest of the company has been doing, I’m not convinced that they can keep Metal Gear up to the same standard as Kojima did.
If anything this highlights how much Kinami is dependant on Kojima. Back in the NES days Konami had a tonne of great games but since the PS1 era they’ve been progressively whittling that number down to gust four brands: Metal Gear, Silent Hill, PES and Castlevania.
If people think the reaction brought about by Ironsides leaving Splinter Cell was bad Kojima leaving Metal Gear will effectively destroy that franchise