In what seems to have been the quietest spat in video games for a while, the phrase "A Hideo Kojima Game" is quietly making a return to Metal Gear Solid products, along with references to him on the pages for stuff like ZoE HD.

Check it out for yourself: https://www.konami.com/mgs/metal-gear-solid-the-legacy-collection/?age-verified=db53adc138

Article with a bit more: http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/metal_gear_solid_5_the_phantom_pain/news/a_hideo_kojima_game_is_konami_reinserting_references_to_kojima_in_metal_gear_solid_branding.html

Just what the hell is going on?

That is some classic backpedalling.

Oh man, I am envisioning Kojima threatening to quit over something, then Konami bigwigs going "Fine, fuck you, we'll take your name off of everything and nobody will care", then OH MAN ALL OF THE MEDIA AND FANS TOTALLY CARE AND THIS WILL SINK FUTURE MGS GAMES, then the Konami bigwigs blink first and give Kojima whatever he was asking for.

The April Fool's joke is that they're inserting his name back.

Yeah I don't know, I think the damage is done at this point, whether it's Konami's reputation with many MGS fans or with Kojima, I don't think there's any chance of Kojima staying at the end of the year.

That's nice, I guess. Not sure what it means on the whole. I kind of want him to quit, to be honest. Kojima-san doesn't have to make Metal Gear anymore.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/silent-hills-pt-website-removes-kojima-productions/1100-6426298/

That was March 31st, now yesterday's news that stuff is being put back the way it was. It's like Twin Peaks over there. Who killed Hideo Kojima?

Well, then. I'm kind of split about this. The idea of Kojima moving on to make brand new games, entirely unrelated to MGS is an exciting one. On the other hand, I really do not trust Konami to handle that franchise without our dear god at the helm. That goes double for the Silent Hills project. I also feel that it'd be highly unfair for Konami to seize the Fox engine.

If nothing else, I'm glad they're giving credit where it's due. Removing his name from the branding of these games seemed like a very childish thing to do. It was just in poor taste, as far as strategic moves go.

What a big, wet fart this entire scandal has been.

I'm starting to think Konami thought "eh, we pulled this shit with Yoshitaka Murayama back in 2002 and no one gave a fuck, corporate policy versus humans always wins anyway" and then realized that the guy in question is so big that if he willed it into existence, he could probably remove "Konami" from every product.

Seriously, I know it's a tired topic, but this entire affair struck me as the classic "clueless Japanese corporation" syndrome - some bigwig being completely oblivious to the fact that people care, especially in the West, and going with it anyway. It's like the FF7 rerelease all over again.

I think that Konami should also consider the potential that crowed funding can provide for a man like Kojima. Keiji Inafune was able to show that he didn't need the power of a giant publishing name to create something that fans want. I feel like Kojima has enough creative influence that he could easily go to Kickstarter with his next idea and get funded almost immediately.

Capcom just about lost all their talent because they split off into their own successful properties (Platinum Games, Comcept, Tango Gameworks, etc) and I feel like that is hurting them in the end. Konami can just as easily end up the same way and I think it's possible that they might have considered this scenario. Either that or they just want to avoid bad press, but I'd like to think the former.

that would be pretty funny. +1 for hideo trolljima :]

I always hoped they would make a ZOE 3 but now that Kojima left I dunno. At least he gets his name back on stuff where his input actually mattered.

Probably saw how popular the Konami penthouse was during the last day of Playstation Home with the MGS Peacewalker poster.

Played us like a damn fiddle

A dud?!

I would've wanted them to do a ZOE 3 with a different guy at the helm and then just let Kojima make something entirely new again.

@ghostiet: Yup. And that's why Konami probably isn't going to be around for much longer (at least not in the video game space, anyway).

I actually hope he is sticking with Konami. I think his insight helps to make the MG games the awesomeness that they are.

I wonder if there was something contractual someone either over looked or that was reinstated. If this was backpedaling then why isn't it a more public showing? If you wanted fans to see you weren't erasing Kojima from everything he ever touched, why not have a press release?

Kojima should go do some other things, he's a great talent and shouldn't be tied to MGS forever.

He should go join UBI and make a good AC game with Kojima nonsense.

One of the most beloved creators in video game history has having his named removed from his games, and they didn't expect people to be pissed about it? Konami has some dumb people working for them to not see this coming. Leave his name of the games he was involved with.

Despite Kojima being the butt of many jokes for how ridiculous his games are, I'm glad we could all come together to tell Konami this is complete and utter bullshit

It could be without his name it could impact sells or maybe kojima could have legal case to fight if they are too zealous in removing his name from everything he worked on. But i don't think they patched things up if you will.

@mikemcn: Or he could join 343 and make halo, think about it.

Looks like one of those confusing/back-and-forth things that I'll back away from until MGS5 comes out.

Sounds like a lot of drama.

Like the David Hayter snit, I'm not convinced I understand it.

April Fools'!

@adequatelyprepared: It's Konami realizing that they are hurting some potential sales of Metal Gear by erasing Kojima from the products like that. They are hoping to put it back before anyone notices. Slimy crap if you ask me!

Kojima only produced the ZOE games, he was never the director or the writer for any of them. He was involved as much as he was for Lords of Shadow, which is to say almost none.

I think the removal of Kojima's name was all just a knee-jerk reaction by some higher-up management folk over Kojima leaving, and when they saw the backlash they reversed it. Or the marketing people threw a shit-fest at the reaction and convinced the right people to change it.

I suppose I meant Kojima more as him and his team. Yoji Shinkawa did the mech designs for ZOE2 and I know a bunch of people from Kojimas team helped work on the look and gameplay.

There's definitely a moral underpinning of intellectual property regarding having his name on or off of the games. Not only that, but the KojiPro logo, although that section of Konami technically does not exist anymore.

obviously the lalelulalo at it again...

@zippedbinders: I would think that he was more involved with those games compared to Lords of Shadow but you're right that he wasn't the creative lead so I stand corrected.

lol, I could totally see this.

Good producers can save and transform a project, they aren't "movie producers" who just write a check/get a big check most of the time. Not even close. Having the same title is just happenstance.

Kojima was a consultant for Lords of Shadow, especially in the last half of its development, where it was hugely overhauled. There's almost 0 writing out there about his involvement, so no one can say what he contributed, other than that he was brought in at the time Konami said to the whole team "save it or trash it".

He was a principal early designer for ZOE, and worked with Shinkawa to design the aesthetic of the game. I'd say those are a pretty big deal, never mind that the game itself was his idea. There's a reason most every press release ever put out by Konami said ZOE was *created* by Hideo Kojima.

All of that said...

I'd be interested in a Metal Gear or a ZoE or Policenauts or whatever, made with or without HK.

ON TOPIC

This is actually a little crazy, right? I mean it seems like silly news but what on earth is happening at Konami??

@geraltitude: I never knew it got as dire as "save it or scrap it" but I have to say Lords of Shadows is one of the more underappreciated games of last generation. Often referenced as a simple God of War clone and not given the time of day because of it's rather lackluster early chapters, the game really gets a lot better past the first major boss. It's a shame the sequel didn't have someone to steer the team onto better waters but it did satisfy my desire to play more of that world in it's own weird way.

I would love to see ZOE3 because I really enjoyed ZOE2 a whole lot, but without Shinkawa for the designs and Kojima for the direction I don't know if we won't get a Lords of Shadow 2 situation - competent, but nothing to write home about. That Lords of Shadow 2 talent was completely squandered by what was later revealed to be extremely bad team leadership. Their concept artists were just out of this world - absolutely beautiful environmental art.

I think it's them just not being assholes about it. If they are going to move forward without him for Metal Gear games okay, but keep his name where it was before at the least.

Don't want to piss off fans before V comes out. Maybe the reaction played a big factor, I'm not sure.

@humanity: In fact I remember wrong about the "save it or scrap it part". They cancelled it. But, Mercury Steam *countered* that cancel with an impressive demo - not only were the bosses impressed but Hideo Kojima himself emerged from the shadows to pledge his allegiance to the cause. Read this if you want to more / not read my version of it. Some history about LoS came out at the time of the sequel's release and then after its poor reception. Good number of not happy developers I think. What's that - you don't remember the first gate? Castlevania gate.

As to Kojima's involvement: said angry developments have stated that he most just showed up a few times, looked at stuff, and signed papers. Not much. Reading interviews/writing from higher ups makes it pretty clear Kojima was basically just making a symbolic gesture to help buy the game faith. Maybe it's still the case or maybe it's not but his word mattered at Konami then/now.

According to a book about Robert Carlyle, it was Hideo Kojima who asked Mercury Steam to give Gabriel Belmont a more heroic look, thus the devs redesigned the character to some extent.

@geraltitude: So basically despite barely having any input or not much input, he pretty much just helped the team buy themselves more time to finish the game? I call that a pretty awesome gesture on Kojima's part.

Well, nothing is known about the situation and apparently nothing has come of it, so... whatever I guess.

In my mind I'm imagining film fan Kojima pleased that he added that clause in his contract giving him an above-the-title credit like a film director... also the "D'oh!" face on the Konami dudes having re-read the contract.

I don't think you're using "lore" properly; threw me for a bit.

It was a dumb joke on my part, based on how Konami seemed to try to retcon the history of Kojima's involvement as much as they could.

Konami must seriously be run by idiots

Well then, I guess did right in not caring the first time around since it seems to be gaining equilibrium once again. Konami seems chaotic these days.

Business is business.

@ghostiet: Especially in the West? Not sure why people are bringing that up.

I don't know. Where's Ray Wise been lately?