I see. Everything Konami has been doing since seems to have been planned to hurt Kojima. Especially the recent removal of his name again off the box art. Their confusing behavior makes more difficult to understand what their main goal is besides humiliating Kojima.

Maybe it’s a PR disaster… by design? 😉
https://www.facebook.com/notes/10204287990255074/

Konami comprises many more things than just Meta Gear–a franchise which only makes up a fraction of their revenue. The problem wasn’t that Kojima was bigger than Konami; the problem is that he thought he was.

The way I see it, when your name and flagship series is what was basically been keeping Konami a relevant household name for the past 30 years… then yeah, in a way, he technically IS bigger than Konami.

You can’t just fire someone who is under contract because he’s a jerk, nor would that make any sense financially when you have years of time and millions of dollars invested into one of your most important game launches in the history of your company. He wanted to use his star power to demand more things–more money, more control, more freedom, etc.–and in doing so ruffled a bunch of feathers, quarrels ensued, and Konami management decided to put him in his place. They’ll both wisely work together to finish the multi-million-dollar game, then they’ll go their separate ways.

It’s not that surprising, really. These types of corporate breakups happen all the time, it’s just that usually the parties involved are mature enough to keep it under wraps. Given Kojima’s inflated sense of self-worth, that this breakup has become so public is not a surprise.

If it were that simple then they would have simply fired him by now or cut him off completely so he’d be forced to leave, but instead they’re keeping him their for the duration of The Phantom Pain. They won’t even mention his name in interviews, if it were simply him sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong they wouldn’t mind mentioning his name even once but something else is at play here.

Both sides did something, but we probably won’t find out what really happened until the game ships or Kojima officially comes out and says he’s quitting or was fired and forced to continue working on it. He’s not selfish. He just acknowledges the praise people have for his talent.

Absolutely. Anyone who has followed his interviews has known for years now that the guy, although a talented game designer, is egotistical and narcissistic. We can pretty much induce what happened: Kojima thought he was bigger than Konami and Konami gave him the boot.

For years really? You must be talking about someone else. And both parties I’m sure did something the other didn’t like that lead them to this point. Only a matter of time before we find out what really happened.

I am saying that he is not a saint and the reason he is getting the boot is because of his own actions. It’s been known for years that the guy is a narcissistic jerk. Let’s not put all of the blame on his superordinates at Konami.

Lest we forget Kojima and his contributions and how Konami paid him back after basically getting them this far on his games alone really. Hope 2016 is a happier year for gaming.