The Konami-Kojima war is well documented now. I won’t go any more into it. But it is probably well known that the front that the fight is being fought at is the credits for the game more than anything else. Shortly after news of the power struggle within Konami first became public, Konami began to wipe Hideo Kojima, and his studio’s, name and branding off all marketing and promotional material for their titles. But now, it seems they are unwilling to even discuss the credits for the game at all.
For instance, recently it came to light that credits will be shown after completing each mission in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. That’s all well and good, but that would, of course, mean that Hideo Kojima’s name would be headlining the credits sequence after every single mission. Antonio Fucito, the man who broke this news, also confirmed (tweet is in Italian; image courtesy of the MetalGearSolid subreddit) that Konami would clarify the exact sequence of events regarding the entire episode with Kojima soon.
Today, the tweet where he broke this news was mysteriously gone. When he was asked about this, he confirmed that Konami had asked him to take the tweet down. However, he stressed that what he had said was true as well:
“Hey, Konami kindly request to delete it, don’t know why exactly. Anyway the content was true :)”
Exactly why is Konami so afraid of discussing just the prospect of Hideo Kojima’s name appearing in the credits for The Phantom Pain? That’s a very basic thing that can just be taken for granted. It’s like the very mention of Kojima’s name gives Konami the willies, and they’re just calling all sorts off negative attention to themselves with all of these unnecessary, heavy handed moves that they are making.
We will keep you posted in any case.