[Image: ゲーム動画]
During last year’s Tokyo Game Show, Hideo Kojima commented on Metal Gear Survive. Respected Japanese news outlet Nikkei now has some of the alleged drama that surrounds that.
When at a 2016 TGS stage event, Kojima replied, “I know absolutely nothing about it,” Kojima said. “That’s because it’s totally unrelated to me, right? Um, how should I put this? Well, for me, Metal [Gear] is espionage with political fiction. Right? So, because of that, there’s no reason that zombies would show up.”
Metal Gear Survive was the first post-Kojima Metal Gear that Konami announced after his departure in late 2015. Some after Kojima’s comments appeared online, video clips of the event began vanishing from the internet.
According to Nikkei (via My Game News Flash), Konami allegedly sent a letter addressed to Kojima last fall. Nikkei reports it stated, “You are unfairly sullying the reputation of our company.” Know that it is unusual in corporate Japan for people to speak so openly about a former employer or its products.
Nikkei adds that the way the TGS crowd laughed probably rubbed Konami the wrong way. The backdrop Nikkei gives is that there was so disagreement over the compensation agreement between Kojima and Konami. Talks had broken down, it seems, and Konami was allegedly refusing to pay one part. The company, however, told Nikkei, it was paying appropriately. Kojima Production gave Nikkei a “no comment.”
It doesn’t end there, it seems. Kojima Productions, Nikkei reports, is supposedly having trouble joining the Kanto IT Software Health Insurance Association with its application apparently being refused. Over 7,000 companies are part of this association, which offers discounted health insurance to tech industry workers as well as hotel, restaurant, and gym discounts. Konami is reportedly a big player in this association, with its sports clubs participating in the program. According to Nikkei, the Kanto IT Software Health Insurance Association said, “We are unable to comment on this issue.”
The Nikkei article also states that Konami has told large game companies to be careful about hiring former Konami employees and Japanese TV stations to disregard them. What’s more, it’s even said that ex-employees are not supposed to refer to themselves as “Formerly of Konami” in their new work when publicly discussing their career history.
Kotaku has reached out to Kojima Productions and Konami for comment prior to publication, but has yet to hear back from either.
Comments
22 responses to “Report: The Hideo Kojima And Konami Saga Seems Endless”
There are zombies in MGSV, fuck off, he couldn’t be more pretentious if he tried.
There was a Vampire (or close enough) in MGS2 and MGS4 as well…
Zombies isn’t much of a stretch.
He described his games (political fiction) and said he hadn’t made a zombie game. Which character/s in MGS are zombies? The parasite infected aren’t, they’re just dying people and no other game has had anything remotely like a zombie. You need to chill.
What about the basic evil monster troopers in MGS V? They’re totally zombies in my book.
He says
He forgot to say “and magic. Lot’s and lots of magic.”
The magical abilities of certain characters are often major turning points for the plot. Honestly, I love the gameplay but I barely follow the story. Story is not Kojima’s strength.
Pretty sure there’s a few things in previous Metal Gear’s that make no sense in an espionage/political fiction game. Like for example, a boss that controls bees, or multiple characters that photosynthesize, or the entire Sorrow scene in MGS3, or anything that happened to Oceliquid in MGS2 onwards…
That said, it is why this game is going to be super bad. I’m not a fan of zombie games to begin with, but trying to shoehorn it into a franchise that doesnt need it is just cash grabbing with no real thought put into it. I would have thought the Zombie survival genre was saturated enough as it is. Nobody asked for this. Lest we also forget that Kojima has been the constant behind all the Metal Gear games thus far and why they are so popular. I dont know if they’re going to recapture what he brings to the table.
Oh, and Metal Gear Survive now makes abbreviations fucking annoying, because MGS = Metal Gear Solid.
I’m guessing he meant thematically. Like, how would fighting a horde of zombies fit into either espionage or politics. It’s more action/horror/thriller. That’s how I read it (dude’s not a great english speaker).
Yeah that’s how I interpreted it as well. Kojima of all people knows that some crazy random shit turns up in his games. The way he specifically mentions “espionage” implies to me that he’s talking about the massive genre shift to a zombie shoot-em-up.
The guy speaks english pretty well, it’s just that conversion from Japanese to English is often taken out of context or translated incorrectly by journalists.
I dare say you’re right though, he would have meant zombies don’t fit the theme of MGS not that that they necessarily wouldn’t fit the universe.
I never asked for this.
Feels like the media is trying to make a bigger deal out of this than it really is.
Forgetting Kojima for a second, I feel like Konami trying to get their former employees blacklisted in the tech and entertainment industries is a pretty big deal. Also, not letting them list Konami publicly on their previous employment history is petty as hell.
I found that part of the article hard to understand. It was poorly written or translated and I don’t think the full context was given.
Yeah, it was a bit vague regarding what circumstances and how binding it is that they can’t mention their previous employment. Like, did they have NDA’s in their contract? Is it just disallowed in marketing material (e.g. “from Such and Such, previously of Konami, comes the new blah”), or is it in resumes and other records? It all sounds like a lot of sour grapes, though.
No, Konami, YOU are sullying your own reputation. And anything negative Kojima says about you is entirely FAIR, because you’re the worst AAA gaming company (or pachislot maker) in the entire world.
I hope Kojima sticks to his guns. Konami really need to get the shit kicked out of them really hard. They’re a fucking disgrace.
Probably overreacting, we only really have one side of the story.
I think Kojima has become bigger than he deserves to be and Konami are simply being cocks.
He really does come across as ignorant if he thinks his MGS titles had nothing like zombies in them. Go cut somebody’s arms off, shove a sword in their toes and tell them to kill some stuff.
I have no respect for either party anymore, regardless of who is right and what is or isn’t true.
Isn’t the very definition of ignorance the act of disregarding “who is right and what is or isn’t true”…?
Pot calling kettle black…
Fa
My opinion on Kojima is never popular. However it is impossible to ascertain where the truth lies here.
Thanks for the comment though 😀
Why is it so hard for you all to read? Thematically none of the games are about zombies. Zip. Nada. They all have a specific theme; gene, meme, scene, sense, peace and revenge. They present ideas for thought.
Yes they have zombies or something zombie like but there is nothing ever that centred around them. Survive is absent of a theme and just looks like a dumb game that Konami tried to come up with without their golden goose.
EDIT: Forgot peace.
Skulls are the only zombie like things, but they’re semi autonomous puppets being used by skullface and fit a narrative, whether you like the narrative or not is subjective of course but that’s what they are. A straight up action zombie game is a stupid use of the IP and completely not metal gear.
Fuck Konami