It has been widely reported that Hideo Kojima will be leaving Konami later this year. Some reports have also claimed that he may in fact leave straight away once Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain ships in September. There have been various reasons given by different media outlets ranging from power struggle within the company to the CEO of Konami hating Hideo Kojima. But these are rumors at best as Konami have yet to officially comment on what will happen with Kojima once The Phantom Pain is done with.
However the rift between Konami and Kojima seems so serious that the company did not even want the developer’s name to be mentioned in a recent interview conducted by Angry Joe. Joe Vargas a.k.a. Angry Joe is a popular Youtuber and is well known within the video game community for his on the face reviews and interviews. During his interview with the community manager Robert Peeler, Joe was explicitly asked by Konami PR not to mention Kojima’s name in the questions.
Personally speaking, the situation is messed up. I am a Metal Gear Solid fan myself and it puzzles me about what actually happened between Kojima and Konami. I mean this is so serious that they don’t even want Kojima’s name to be a part of an interviewer’s question.
You can check out the entire video log and the interview below. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom is due for the PS3, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.