Hideo Kojima was fired by Konami, according to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes voice actress Donna Burke.
Burke, who voiced the iDroid in the Phantom Pain prequel, claimed that Kojima had been fired by the publisher’s upper management, tweeting: “Yes don’t throw away the Kojima teams work over the last 5 years because upper management fired a genius.” Responding to a tweet from someone asking whether she had just confirmed that the MGS creator had been removed from his duties by Konami, Burke replied: “Yes but it’s been out in the media for weeks… but it’s true.”
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While this isn’t official confirmation of the reasoning behind Kojima’s reported departure from the company, it’s the closest we have come to finding out just what has happened between the developer and his long-term collaborative publisher. It had previously been reported that Kojima had decided to walk from Konami after failing to agree on terms regarding the company’s treatment of Kojima Productions, the developer’s personal studio, but Burke’s comments suggest that there may be more to it than we had initially speculated.
What does this mean for Silent Hills?
Whatever the case may be, the future certainly isn’t looking bright for Kojima’s planned Silent Hills game, with Konami holding the rights to the license. If Kojima has been ousted from his role within the company, then it’s likely that Silent Hills will be fielded to another developer, or it may even be canned completely.
While it’s certainly not our place to find out what has happened behind the scenes to lead to Konami and Kojima sharing such a seemingly tumultuous relationship, we do hope to receive some confirmation in the near future regarding Silent Hills, and what is in store for the MGS series beyond the release of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
