Konami: Kojima just went on Vacation and is still an employee! (has Konami had a change of heart?)

Kojima Is on Vacation and Still an Employee, Says Konami

Publisher claims reports of Metal Gear creator's departure are not accurate.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/kojima-is-on-vacation-and-still-an-employee-says-k/1100-6431544/#js-message-350425851

According to Japanese publication Tokyo Sports, which has been translated by Kotaku, a Konami spokesperson said "currently, Kojima is listed as a company employee," and went on to say the extended leave was normal for console game development projects.

"Currently, Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid V and are taking a long time off from work," the representative said. "Because the development time for console games is so long and fatigues builds up, it’s common for employees to take extended periods of time of when development is finished."

The publisher did not say whether or not Kojima had secured a new contract at the company, nor whether it wanted to maintain the 29-year partnership.

On Monday it was reported that Kojima parted ways with Konami earlier in the month. Around one hundred guests attended a small leaving ceremony, including former colleagues from other studios. Addressing this event, the Konami spokesperson said "we're not sure what kind of thing this was."

Simon Parkin, writer of the original New Yorker piece confirming Kojima's departure, has since released an image of this farewell gathering.

File this under strange.

Perhaps the huge MGSV sales and amazing (93/100) critic scores have changed Konami's position on Kojima (MGS5's sales are still growing and have the beautiful holiday sales still coming), or maybe it's all massive damage control...

Am I the only one who has been paying attention to the part where Konami stated that Kojima never left and this is just a false rumor propogated by shitty clickbait gaming publications?

Are we quick to forget the part where Kojima said "this will be the last Metal Gear Solid" after every single MGS game to date? The ploy of making it seem like he was fired to further cement his "omg buy my game because it's the last I'll make" mentality that he relies on to sell his game. He was never going anywhere.

Anything that has to do with Kotaku I tend to ignore

Well they sure took their sweet fucking time to say he still works there.

You know what? I'd actually love to get the final half og MGSV.

Shouldn't he take a vacation after finishing the game? Cause that game was incomplete.

Or Konami is being as full of shit as the average politician.

Then why did Silent Hills get canned?

Will he finish MGSV when he comes back from vacation then?

And it was still great. Imagine if he had actually finished it...

TIN FOIL HAT TIME: The Kojima drama was a ruse to get everyone to buy MGS5:PP, a pity play to get everyone to see Kojima's swan song, to get reviewers to perfect review it as a farewell to Kojima and Metal Gear Solid, as was supposed to be the case for MGS4 which explains perfect scores for such a shitty game, fans of the series just wanted to give it a dignified farewell, like how members of Congress that are utter turds get standing ovations when they retire. We got played then, they played us like manipulative sociopaths, and if that's truly the case, then they succeeded. They've done it to us twice, what's to say they won't do it to us again?

Would it really surprise anybody they'd go to any length to guarantee it's success? Review boot camps, review copy contracts basically saying they'll perfect score the game so they can't mark it down for everything that was wrong with it, early access to the game in a highly controlled and influential setting. And, making people pity rather unremarkable games saying it will be the last of a legacy. We've been played, we've all been played. We're like people who spend a fortune on penis extension pills and special oils to make your bald spot grow hair and get rich quick scheme; totally been played..

Maybe he is going to do some collaboration work on some pachinko machines.

Strange indeed, but in this day of age I wouldn't be surprised if it was all planned.....except for when they removed his name from the game cover I guess.

Who knows what the real deal is, but as they say in show business, there is no such thing as bad publicity.....or is there ?

And yet I don't see any Kojima Productions Picture in my MGS V Case, Disc, Manual, nor the map, meaning Konami is distancing themselves with anything Kojima. Truth is if this goes out to the masses Konami's stock will take a big hit

Its awesome Konami gave him a vacation, very respectful. Still though, we want Metal Gear Rising 2, stop slacking Konami, cut the freaken leash and lets move on to greater things.

@SolidTy: MGS V was critically acclaimed sure, but the sales aren't what they were expecting. For a game with an $80 million dollar budget to get outsold in September by a game that was out the 29th vs MGS V which launched the 1st isn't great. Especially since they came out bragging about the 3 million sales in the first few days. MGS V is selling around what MGS 4 sold but it's 5 platforms vs 1. After launch week, older games like Splatoon have been outselling it in Japan and Destiny outsold it on the PSN store in the U.S. and EU. If these numbers tell us anything, it's that MGS V has no legs at all. I think Konami is trying to get some of the internet outrage off their back.

Kojima still had contract until.. december or something like that. Hes not going to make anything new in a few months so no point having him around.

Maybe he'll actually finish MGS5.

"Has Konami had change of heart?"

Too late. They butchered his project.

@SolidTy: 96 percent of everyone doesnt know how to acknowledge kojimas work over the years. I could tell reading this thread is gonna stress me out lol , here goes.

I don't get why people are so infatuated with this guy. I mean i understand hes a good game designer, but why do people care so much about his contractual issues with his job? Quit and move on already all this social media drama and whining about Konami...it's like a nerd reality show.

@GoldenElementXL: You should look up MGS4's budget because you'd be surprised and don't forget to add inflation. Also, factor in the $$$ monies made from the smaller MGS5:GZ. Sidenote too, there hasn't been a lot of MGS5 television advertising which is a missed opportunity on Konami's part.

Anyways, we'll see how sales work out after the year ends (for those that care, which is not me since I don't make any of Konami's monies.)

To be honest, Konami's statement is really the focal point. I posted the sales and scores to simply shed light on why Konami would make statements about Kojima being simply on vacation.

@vvulturas: I find it was ok, a bit too repetitive for my taste, but enjoyable.

I'd agree that it's incomplete as far as story goes. But oddly enough it was more fulfilling experience than the vast majority of games I've played this gen.

Either that's saying a lot about the game, or saying very little about this generation in its entirety. Either way it did plenty right and it's unfortunate how some people refuse to see that.

I also theorize that content is deliberately missing in order to make the game's subtitle seem more apt, which is something that I don't think anyone would appreciate if that is indeed the case.

So You're saying P.T could be revived?

@SolidTy: lol brilliant. Was anticipating someone posting that gif haha.:p

What are you talking about? Like in my link in my first post - they've always been saying he never left. It's only gaming publications with their rumors saying otherwise.

I thought he doesn't officially leave till December?

Maybe its some kind of Japanese culture thing?

Trying to save face in some strange kind of way.

I hear that culturally, they do not outright fire people. they just keep demoting them until the person in question actually walks on their own. So maybe they'll keep saying Kojima is still an employee until he declares otherwise himself.

I can't believe a word that comes out of Konami's mouth at this point. It would be great if they somehow settled their differences and brought TP back to life tho.

Wait what? From what I've read, MGSV almost reached MGS4's ltd numbers in its first day. It's already the fastest selling game in the series, even speeding past MGS2s initial numbers.

Not saying you're wrong here, but do you have a source?

Well I did a little digging on this matter at hand and this is the only link I found that discuss on Guns of the Patriots sales vs Phantom Pain: MGS5 sales

From the article:

The first is that the game has sold 3 million units since launch, great by most metrics, though as our own Ollie Barder notes, Metal Gear Solid 4 also put up similar numbers when it was just a PS3 exclusive, so that’s a bit of a red flag. And givenMGSV’s enormous budget and marketing costs, it’s going to have to move significantly more copies to be profitable for Konami, which is what the publisher was worried about during the game’s expensive development with Kojima.

Now remember, Guns of the Patriots is still a PS3 exclusive vs Phantom Pain multiplatform so that has to be taking into account.

This whole Kojima Konami drama was just a distraction from the fact that MGS5 wasnt that great of a game.

You have to be careful with Forbes (it's well known Forbes very, very bad reputation here) since they post a lot of misinformation, usually due to lack of research by the contributors who typically seem to be casual/ non-gamers who posts a quick "article" for clickbait.

Case in point this Forbes contributor was just citing Dualshockers which reads:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Ships Over Three Million Copies Worldwide, Matches MGS4

http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/09/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-ships-over-three-million-copies-worldwide/

However, this Forbes writer then confused his own information and replaced the word "ship" with "sold", and incorrectly posted "the game has sold 3 million units since launch". That's not what was stated. The article this Forbes guy got this information from never said it sold 3 million, it said it SHIPPED 3 million globally.

There is a distinction between Shipped and Sold in this information because unlike MGS4, MGS5 is also sold digitally on PS3, 360, PC, PS4, and Xbone.

Forbes screwed up again, which is what they are known for when it comes to gaming.

I would recommend if you find yourself at a Forbes "article", to also look at their citation as if you are a teacher and they are the student, because they just screw up a lot. TBH, I follow information trails all the time though, even non-Forbes because people screw up so much these days.

Now that we see that Forbes screwed up their own information, going to the source we see MGS5 shipped 3 million units day one.

Remember too, MGS4 needed to be shipped and it was a huge game on a single Blu-Ray disc. MGS4 was not sold digitally and it was only one one platform.

MGSV was shipped same/similar numbers FOR DAY ONE as MGS4, it's true, but MGSV is also digital on five platforms. We see the shipping numbers are similar, but we haven't seen the MGSV digital sales numbers at all (as they are sold directly and therefore don't need to be shipped.) For the PC market, digital sales are massive and MGS5 sales there wouldn't have been reported yet. All we can compare right now is just the shipping numbers for a non-digital, physical only 2008 game on one platform and a digital and physical 2015 game on five platforms.

What about week 1 shipping numbers? Week 2 weekly numbers? We don't have nearly enough information to say at all that MGSV is "selling" around what MGS4 sold. Anyone who is saying that should give a citation that we can scrutinize because Konami isn't talking yet.

I imagine Konami is seeing some good sales numbers for them to make headlines and say Kojima is still employed and is on vacation.

Then there is the holidays sales boost still coming as well.

@SolidTy: Oh, I see. Thanks for the clarifying this.

No probs, amigo. I just follow the breadcrumbs in a world of clickbaity headlines. :)

Maybe Konami is having a change of heart due to MGS V's sales. Hopefully, Silent Hills can be a thing now.

Yeah no fuckin shit! You think they would of corrected this at the start of the rumor? It has been several months.

fucking make PT!!!

Yes please

Yeah, I don't believe that for some reason.

@KHAndAnime: He is the creator of the ultimate deceiver "Big Boss" after all lol well ocelot is worse lol