The story of Hideo Kojima and Konami is taking a pretty strange turn, especially since the game designer has apparently left the company for good.
The New Yorker reported that Hideo Kojima was leaving the company for good earlier this month (9th October) , complete with a farewell party hosted in Japan.
However the Japanese company said no, their most famous employee is “taking a vacation”. The New Yorker reporter replied it with an image Tweet, showing the farewell party as the reporter wrote earlier.
Here is a photograph of Kojima's farewell party on October 9th at Konami, which Konami claims no knowledge of: pic.twitter.com/xgRUoYs5qt
— Simon Parkin (@SimonParkin) October 20, 2015
Astute observers will notice that the absence of Konami president Hideki Hayakawa and CEO Sadaaki Kaneyoshi in the image above. The party was held at Kojima Productions office with attendees from other studios and colleagues which is described as “a rather cheerful but also emotional goodbye,“.
After all, his name was erased from all Metal Gear Solid V promos and boxart prompting the hilarious meme “A Hideo Kojima Game”. His project with Guillermo del Toro was also cancelled without any explanation by Konami and the Kojima Productions got shut down on July this year. What’s more, during the opening day of the game, Hideo Kojima was wandering around stores selling the game and signing autographs in an unofficial capacity.
According to Tokyo Sports, a spokesperson of Konami insisted, “Currently, Kojima is listed as a company employee. Currently, Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid V and are taking a long time off from work.”
When the spokesperson asked about the farewell party, the reply is “We’re not sure what kind of thing this was.”
The possible clue on this bizarre circus is the successful sale of Metal Gear Solid V, it made US$179 million (RM$770 million) on its opening day, twice the opening day ticket sales of Age of Ultron. Perhaps Konami’s top people are changing their minds?
The drama continues.