Voice actress Donna Burke announced April 9 via social media outlets Facebook and Twitter that "Metal Gear" creator Hideo Kojima was fired by game studio Konami, although he would remain throughout the production of "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain." However, the actress posted another message on Facebook, clarifying that this is not the case.
Burke's previous Twitter post reportedly said, "Yes don't throw away the Kojima teams work over the last 5 years because upper management fired a genius."
Part of the new message posted via Facebook reads:
I agree, Konami- I should be more accurate.
'Don't throw away the last 5 years because Konami changed the contract status of a genius'
Konami is correct in that Kojima has not actually been fired. As I stated previously he and his team are still working hard on getting the game out. My sincere apologies to Konami, Hideo Kojima and the fans for giving the wrong impression."
According to Burke, Kojima is still 100 percent involved in "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" and is hoping to make this the best game he has ever directed.
At any rate, Burke's decision to correct the statement from "fired" to "contract status" still gives some insight on the internal struggles at Konami. It has been rumored for several weeks that Kojima is either quitting Konami or is getting fired after the completion of "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain."
The controversy began on March 19 when Konami removed Kojima's name and his company's logo from all of their "Metal Gear" products. By March 20, as cited by IGN, Konami opened job listings to develop new games in the franchise, giving credibility to the rumor that Konami was moving forward with new "Metal Gear" titles without Kojima.
According to the timeline posted by IGN, Konami clarified on March 26 that the reason they removed Kojima's branding from "Metal Gear Solid V" was to focus all marketing on "Konami." They did not, however, clarify if Kojima was still employed by the company or if he was simply working under contract.
His name was added back to all "Metal Gear Solid" products on April 5, four days prior to Burke's initial post via Twitter.
