They Played Us Like A Damn Fiddle
Life comes at you fast. Kotaku’s Japan-based reporter, Brian Ashcraft reports via Japan’s Nikkei that Hideo Kojima’s comments last year may have landed him in hot water with his former company Konami. The comment in question was made during last year’s Tokyo Game Show while he was on stage promoting his upcoming Death Stranding and was asked about the upcoming Metal Gear Survive, Konami’s first post-Kojima MGS game. Ashcraft writes that 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.”
As Ashcraft reports, it’s pretty hard to find a YouTube clip of Kojima’s comments as they’ve been seemingly taken down. However, that’s far from the worst part of this fight between Kojima and Konami as the TGS comments may have interfered with a financial agreement between the two parties. Nikkei via My Games News Flash adds, Kojima was allegedly sent a letter by Konami last fall that says, “You are unfairly sullying the reputation of our company.” The letter, of course, represented Konami’s take on the comments and Ashcraft notes that it is unusual for a company to speak so openly about an ex-employee. It didn’t help that the TGS crowd laughed after the comments too.
This drama has led to communication breakdowns between both parties as there’s allegedly some disagreement over the compensation agreement, Nikkei reports. In short, Konami was allegedly refusing to pay a portion of the agreement, but the company has refuted this claim to Nikkei, saying everything is on the up and up with them paying the appropriate amount. Meanwhile, Kojima’s studio, Kojima Productions, issued no comment to Nikkei on the matter.
Further compounding the bad blood is Konami’s alleged meddling with Kojima Productions’ application to Kanto IT Software Health Insurance Association which offers discounted health insurance to tech industry workers with perks such as hotel, restaurant, and gym discounts. Konami, which has its sports clubs involved with the program, and reportedly has huge influence may have been involved with Kojima Productions’ application woes. The last bit of the Nikkei article goes over some of Konami’s ugly way of treating ex-employees
The last bit of the Nikkei article goes over some of Konami’s ugly way of treating ex-employee as they allegedly told large game companies to tread carefully in hiring them. Even different industries like TV stations are told to disregard former Konami workers like a Metal Gear Survive zombie.
There are a few gaming stories in the recent decade that I’d love to be a fly on the wall to hear like Amy Henning’s departure from Naughty Dog during Uncharted 4 and of course, the real story of what happened between Kojima and Konami. Due to legal red tape, the true nature of what really transpired between both parties may forever be out of reach. However, if reports like this are to be believed, as Jim Sterling has eloquently said once, “#FuckKonami.”