The Konami-Kojima split is common knowledge at this point, confirmed and re-confirmed by Geoff Keighley spilling the dirt on Konami at The Game Awards earlier this month, and by Kojima’s announcement of his new game studio that he would be starting with Sony. But we still don’t know what it was like on the inside, we don’t know details about what really went on. And apparently, Konami has contractually forbidden Kojima from ever talking about it, meaning we aren’t likely to find out.
Or so we thought. But thanks to former Konami Tech Director Julien Mercaron’s talk, attended by DualShockers, we have some idea of what went on behind the scenes now. Mercaron confirmed that there was indeed a major altercation between the development team and Konami’s management back earlier this year- which led to the flurry of news reports that we got around March and April. However, even though the situation was dire, and Kojima himself was reduced to just being an external contractor for a company that he had essentially helped build, and on the verge of losing his babies Metal Gear and the FOX Engine, he didn’t change his demeanor and remained focus on the game’s development. “Don’t worry, we’re going to finish our game, we will give everything we have to give, and then we will see,” is what he reportedly told the development team.
The members of the team asked themselves a lot of questions, but they hoped that the game would be released and be successful, and that it would cause Konami to go back on its decision, so that the team could start working on a new Metal Gear. That did not turn out as they had wished for- the game was released, it was successful, and Konami did start work on a new Metal Gear. It was just without Kojima and his team.
It’s a tragic ending to the saga, but the plus side of this is, for the first time in years, Kojima is now freed creatively from the shackles of Metal Gear, free to do as he wishes. Here’s wishing the best of luck for his future endeavors.