I won’t embed the video here since there is a special page for it over at the SnakeSoup. It’s probably best to go there and see the introduction and follow-up material provided by Ravi Singh. On this page I’ll give my impressions of the video and reply to its arguments.
Tag Archives: mgsv
Video Game Awards and Kojima
Hideo Kojima was legally prevented from attending the Video Game Awards yesterday. During the ceremony MGSV won an award for Best Action/Adventure Game, and Keifer Sutherland went up to accept it on Kojima’s behalf. (Sutherland noted that Metal Gear Solid fans are the most devoted of any he’s ever seen, saying that of all the things he’s done in the past, the only posters he seems to sign are for Snake in MGS.)
Here‘s what Keighley said about the situation afterward:
“Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight, but unfortunately he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight’s award ceremony to accept any awards. He’s still under employment contract and it’s disappointing — it’s inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates. Such an incredible game, is Metal Gear Solid 5, but that’s the situation we’re in. Hideo is in Tokyo right now, watching the show, so I want you to know, Hideo, that we’re thinking of you, and we miss you. We hope to see you at The Game Awards 2016.”
Clearly this is the most pathetic move yet by Konami. It truly does seem like pure animosity toward Kojima, which begs the question of what exactly he did to piss them off so much. The game has sold incredibly well, and obviously it won an award, so it is mind-boggling why things would continue to drag out in such an ugly fashion.
I can’t wait to find out what the hell is going on yet.
Also, Jade Raymond — who many speculate was drunk at the event — took a moment to spit on the decision to replace David Hayter in Metal Gear Solid V. Here’s a video of that. I don’t see this as a jab at Sutherland, just pent up disbelief that Hayter was rudely snubbed for the role.
Surprise: MGSV was very profitable on Day 1
So yeah, the whole Kojima Productions dismantling probably wasn’t about money.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain made $179 million globally on its opening day, according to Adobe Digital Index’s new report on gaming trends. Compare that to the blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, which made $84 million globally on its opening day. Yes, The Phantom Pain made almost twice as much. So, the next time someone tells you that triple-A gaming is dying, you’re allowed to laugh in their face.
This shouldn’t be news, but of course there were countless commenters who replied to the controversy surrounding Kojima by saying MGSV’s budget was astronomical, the game would struggle to ever become profitable, etc. Do these people realize that games cost over $60 USD each? Did they realize that next-gen consoles have no games right now? It will be interesting to see what the reaction is to this news.
This feat is even more impressive when you consider that Metal Gear Solid V had a cheaper budget. It cost $80 million to make, while Age of Ultron had a massive $250 million budget. And games already make more than film: Gaming will be worth $91.5 billion this year, according to research group Newzoo. Accounting firm PwC says that the movie industry will be worth $88.3 billion in 2015.
“The gaming industry is a lot bigger than most marketers realize,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst and director at Adobe in the report. “These games get more social buzz on opening day than most movies do, and the revenue for one of the top games this year outdid the highest-grossing movie start [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $91 million] by nearly double.”
Let’s act shocked.
Review vs. Analysis
I received an email recently from a reader who wasn’t impressed with my review. He said that it felt like a kneejerk reaction against the game, without all of the nuance and insight that I usually give. This was my reply to him, which may interest some of you:
My review was written as a judgment, not an analysis. Most of my articles do not review MGS games, they study them, as you said. For a review, however, the purpose is to decide what I personally like or dislike, and to criticize the product as a product. MGSV is a product that costs money, and which either meets or fails to meet expectations of consumers who paid to experience it. I am one of those consumers. I’m not a disciple of Kojima.
If you read my actual review of MGS2, which follows at the end of my “Complete Breakdown” analysis, you’ll see that I also give it criticism in ways that I never did elsewhere. Perhaps it’s rare, but I can simultaneously understand the deep intentions of Kojima and step back and judge his output from a more unbiased point of view.
With that said, my review is positive. Perhaps you interpreted it as negative because you expected an analysis instead of a review. My analysis will be in my book, and its too early for me to even get into that side of things at this point. Once we know about what the hell happened during production with Konami and him I’ll feel more comfortable doing a meta analysis, but honestly, everyone else is pretty much on the same level as me until we hear more.
I appreciate the email and I knew that it would come off that way. I also felt bad giving a judgment on it as a product, because my role has been an analyst for years, but that’s not nearly all I have to say about the game. I hope you’ll look forward to a deeper analysis without judgment down the road, because I am too.
Like I said, though, I genuinely give it a positive review and don’t hate it. Trust me that I can see the attempts at meta things better than anyone else out there, trying to be smart about the artistic intentions and the twist. I have some important things to say about the meta aspect that I haven’t shared yet. But i just wanted to get my EVALUATION of the PRODUCT out of the way while it was fresh, and I felt that I may as well articulate what people were experiencing.
I did pretty much insult the way it tried to be clever, but there is a sick habit going around the gaming community as a whole where people defend games based on everything except enjoyment and user experience. We’re all experts now, familiar with behind-the-scenes production struggles, sympathizing with various creators, or even just what they represent. “This game isn’t fun but it represents the indie scene and anti-corporate practices so I’m going to defend it!”. But what about the experience itself? Is it impossible to separate our view of a product from the production itself?
My REVIEW is about that 16 year old who picks up the game without knowing anything about Konami politics, but played some of the old games and wants to experience something worth their money. My analysis will be about Kojima and the meaning of it all.
REVIEW: METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
Konami erases Kojima’s name from MGSV box art
Well, your worst nightmares have come true, Metal Gear fans: KONAMI seems to be erasing the Kojima Productions logo and the classic “A Hideo Kojima Game” phrase from the box art of The Phantom Pain. And as you would expect, people are very confused.
The logic of this move isn’t so crazy. KONAMI wants gamers to stop being loyal to Kojima, and start being loyal to KONAMI. With Kojima on his way out, but the Metal Gear series set to continue on without him, why not? But even news sites are having a hard time comprehending what they’re doing:
But even if they have a bone to pick with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, removing his name from the Metal Gear Solid V box itself, is absurd and unprofessional, the petty act of a spurned lover.
He goes on to explain the common perception about the situation:
This follows Konami pulling Kojima’s name and that of his studio Kojima Productions from marketing materials earlier this year. At the time, Konami assured everyone that it was simply a restructure: The Japanese publisher was moving to a “headquarters-controlled” system and Kojima and his team would remain intact. That was not to be, as revelations of Kojima’s departure emerged shortly after.
Konami and Kojima may have parted ways, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is the man and the team responsible for creating one of the best-selling, most critically acclaimed series in Konami’s history as a company. Nor does it change the fact that Kojima himself is popular with gamers, and erasing him risks even more bad press and alienation than Konami has already faced.
Of course it’s a controversial move, at a time when they should be focusing on hyping up their huge blockbuster title, not generating hatred from hundreds of thousands of their most loyal customers. He goes on to express his confusion:
But outside of a little passive-aggressiveness, I’m not sure what Konami is hoping to achieve here. Smug satisfaction?
That’s the question we need to be asking. I could remind you of another 20 reasons why this story doesn’t add up, but let me take another stab at a good explanation instead.
- Hideo Kojima tells the company executives he wants to quit the Metal Gear series after The Phantom Pain and move on to other projects such as Silent Hills. MGSV is designed to be highly expandable (episodic mission structure,) and the LA team is set up to handle multiplayer support.
- KONAMI complains, but allows him to keep working and promoting it in the hopes that he’ll buckle under pressure along the way.
- Kojima predicted this and already made MGSV about the whole situation from the start, even as early as Ground Zeroes. Hence his “career-ending taboo” hints early on in production.
- Kojima makes it clear that he won’t be continuing the series, no matter what, and eventually has a fight with the top management, who start pulling out threats that Kojima has already predicted.
- KONAMI threatens to cancel MGSV, sack Kojima Productions, kick out Kojima, and cancel Silent Hills too.
- Kojima knows that MGSV will tell his story, and watches as they start executing their threats, as he expected. They are burning the bridge while scrambling to hire a new team for future titles and don’t even know how to save face.
I refuse to believe that Kojima was blindsided by these events, or that he wasn’t fully prepared for them in his mind and heart. He’s too old, has gone through too much bullshit with Konami and the Metal Gear series, and has put too many hints into MGSV already. Remember shining the blue light on the Metal Gear logos that he considers canon? Completely needless, mostly ignored, but suddenly highly poignant once you realize that he was trying to send a message to players through the game in a way that Konami couldn’t erase.
Perhaps MGSV truly is about revenge, but for something that he knew was going to happen in the future.
IT’S JUST A BOX: Why #AHIDEOKOJIMAGAME Is Misguided
The embarrassingly naïve outrage over Kojimagate continues on, and although I don’t have time to flesh this out the way that I normally would, I’m going to race through the points and try to point out how silly fans are acting right now. This isn’t just about the hashtag, but all those fans who are getting upset because they seriously think that Kojima has been betrayed by Konami…
Kojima’s supposed erasure from Konami
UPDATED: I’ve added some more thoughts on the situation, and the possibilities, toward the bottom of the post.
Joakim Mogren must be laughing right now.
Despite the fact that E3 is only three months away and MGSV is going to be released in less than six months — creating what could reasonably be called the official hype season for MGSV and Hideo Kojima — people on the Internet are actually believing the story that Konami is now publicly humiliating and extricating themselves from the only thing that keeps their corporation afloat: game design superstar and fellow Konami executive, Hideo Kojima.
The evidence is straightforward and brutal, if you believe it. Konami is literally erasing Kojima’s name from promotional materials and websites, renaming Kojima Productions’ studio altogether, creating a new official Twitter account for Metal Gear Solid in order to replace Kojima Productions’ account, and changing their corporate structure to exclude Kojima and… take all the power for themselves, I guess? An anonymous source has also come out of the woodwork to leak juicy details about a “falling out” between the parties, saying that Konami is even disabling their Internet access to prevent them from talking or something. Oh, and Kojima made a cryptic tweet of Big Boss climbing onto a helicopter to leave Mother Base.
Kotaku seems to be aware that this is very fishy.
VG24/7 has collected the evidence.
Gamasutra is reaching to to anyone affected by this development.
There are huge problems with this story, and we should know better than to take any of it at face value, even though there are obviously aspects of truth to it. Below is my theory.
In order to generate the maximum amount of controversy and buzz around Metal Gear Solid V, it makes sense for Kojima to orchestrate a major stunt leading up to it, especially involving himself losing his job and status. To foreshadow and then fulfill his role as a martyr during this project fits perfectly with the themes of the series at this point, and guarantees the kind of tidal wave of attention that we’ve already seen. Not only did Kojima talk early on about dealing with taboos and being afraid of having his project rejected by officials, but he even posited that he might losing his place in the industry if something went wrong.
Fans are being provoked into coming to Kojima’s “rescue”, and thus generating a marketing campaign on behalf of the man at no cost to Konami. Already we’ve seen a barrage of sentimental photos from fans displaying their collection of “A Hideo Kojima Game” games, with hashtags and everything. No doubt we will see petitions and rallies by the time E3 rolls around, demanding that Kojima be given credit for his games! Kojima will either not be heard from, or will fan the flames of concern with more cryptic hints, as he supposedly slaves away at his final Metal Gear game in silence and shame.
It’s possible that Kojima really is leaving Konami, or at least stepping down from an executive position, but there’s no way that either side would handle such a move with so little taste as this. And what about Silent Hills, the intriguing reboot of the franchise designed by Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro? Kojima has been happy with things leading up to now, and only gaining more power with every passing year.
The official statement from Konami? “Konami Digital Entertainment, including Mr. Kojima, will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements.” This is just a reassurance to shareholders that this isn’t serious–not that any self-respecting shareholder would believe in such a turn of events without better evidence and reasoning anyway; as a corporation, Konami has nothing to gain from rejecting Kojima, and everything to lose.
Remember Moby Dick Studios
Before The Phantom Pain was officially unveiled as Metal Gear Solid V, Hideo Kojima directly stated that he had no involvement with the game. According to the promotional materials and official branding, it was the work of Joakim Mogren — a man wearing bandages all over his face — and “Moby Dick Studios”.
This is how far Kojima was willing to go in order to create buzz around the game. Lying to the press, staging fake interviews with Geoff Keighley, and appearing on stage to take off a silly rubber mask at GDC. Apparently nobody remembers this, or understands what it really tells us about Kojima’s strategy with MGSV.
Kojima (and therefore Konami) knows very well how much weight his name carries. Teasing The Phantom Pain as a game unrelated to Kojima Productions was a ridiculous and even morally questionable hoax, aimed at harnessing the speculative power of social media. To not even be skeptical about the current erasure of Kojima from the game is to be stupid.
Worst case scenario
The above theory is my initial reaction to the whole situation as a fan of Kojima’s PR stunts leading up to this point, and a believer that Konami is smart enough to work out something at least a little bit congenial if they did have to part ways with the man who’s keeping their company in the big leagues. I could be wrong, though. If things are as bleak as it seems, and the betrayal of Kojima is as real as everyone seems to think, it’s still not that bad of a situation.
If there has been a genuine fallout between Kojima and Konami — which is possible, though incredibly foolish of Konami — and even if this has resulted in the company turning him into a contract employee who will be done his service once the game is released, the good news is that Konami will suffer greatly as a result. Maybe Kojima even demanded this, and it wasn’t Konami’s choice. Who knows. What we do know is that if Kojima Productions is canned, Kojima will be free to pursue any projects he wants, which is what he’s been wanting for a decade.
Does this mean Silent Hills would be cancelled? Did Kojima actually plant the foreshadowing of his “potential career move”, not to generate buzz, but to inject as much irony as possible into his final mission for Konami? I could see that. He certainly wouldn’t have been blindsided by any of this, so maybe he just wanted to make sure the metanarrative he’s been constructing over the course of the series was properly appreciated before he left. We’ll see.
Whether his name is on the box or not, I’m still going to enjoy the hell out of The Phantom Pain, and you better believe I’ll be looking for as much meaning as I can from it. If Konami begins to pump out non-Kojima MGS games when he’s gone (which they certainly would) I’ll be eager to see what they do without him. He wanted other people to take over the series, and although he doesn’t have a “successor” he can hand it off to, that doesn’t mean they’ll be awful. Which brings me to another possibility…
A new deal?
Perhaps there’s just a new arrangement for Kojima, albeit a less-than-ideal one. Perhaps he will continue to support the Metal Gear franchise (as the press release stated,) by writing the basic plots for new Metal Gear games, but not go as far as to make them “A Hideo Kojima Game” by directing and producing them as well. He’s said he’d be willing to do this plenty of times before. And perhaps he’s willing to sacrifice the Kojima Productions label (which was never really a productions company of its own, and played up the Metal Gear angle by having a FOX logo) and his membership as an executive in order to become a regular game designer for Konami again. Maybe he’ll create Moby Dick Studios for real, and Konami will simply publish his games like they would for other developers.
At this early point, I’m still very skeptical about the worst-case scenario people have been freaking out over. I trust that Kojima and Konami have some kind of mutually beneficial understanding, at least.