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Kojima Has Left Konami, Starting a New Studio with Sony

hideo-kojima-headerIn the worst kept secret in gaming, Hideo Kojima’s contract with Konami has come to an end. The legendary developer had been in an ongoing dispute with Konami which saw Konami remove Kojima’s name and that of Kojima Productions from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Kojima’s apparent unemployment didn’t last long, though. Within about 24 hours of a report by Japanese business publication Nikkei stating the Kojima was no longer employed by Konami, Sony Computer Entertainment announced a partnership with a newly founded version of Kojima Productions to produce a new franchise.

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Hideo Kojima Barred from The Game Awards by Konami

It may not have taken home any of the big prizes from The Game Awards but Konami and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain certainly was the biggest newsmaker at last night’s awards show. Even after the announcement of four new games at the TGAs, the post-show discussion centred around the news that Konami barred Hideo Kojima from attending The Game Awards.

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Where in the World is Hideo Kojima?

hideo-kojima-headerLong before Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released and received reviews that put it on the shortest of shortlists for Game of the Year, rumours were abound about Hideo Kojima’s status with Konami. Reports said he was taken off the project. His name was taken off the cover of MGSV. However, the official stance is that everything was normal. In the two months since the game’s release,

Last week, the story got new life with a New Yorker article that said Kojima left the company near the beginning of October, even having a goodbye party on his last Friday at Konami. For their part, Konami disagrees.

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PSA: Metal Gear Solid V was Reviewed in a Controlled Environment

metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-headerAs of writing, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, what may go down in history as the last great Konami game, has been getting near unanimous game of the year calibre reviews. The current Metacritic average is 95% with five of 20 reviews scoring it perfect and 12 of 20 reviews scoring it at or above 95%.

There’s just one problem with those reviews. They were all done at a Konami supervised review event that saw all reviewers play the game for 8 hours per day with no unsupervised play allowed.

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Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Review: The Real Next-Gen?

metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes-headerIf there’s one thing that will get gamers excited, it’s the words “Hideo Kojima.” The man has generated so much goodwill among gamers for the epic Metal Gear series that he might as well walk on water. Just the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was enough to launch the hype train to near unprecedented levels.

Then Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes happened. The game was released in March 2014 on console for $30 but it didn’t live up to the hype or the price. What was a very solid experience was overshadowed by backlash over fan criticisms of a lack of value.

And now Ground Zeroes has made its way to PC. It made a big splash with a smaller price tag than the console release and getting a 33% discount on release day thanks to a front page appearance during the Steam Holiday Sale. Can the PC port of Ground Zeroes salvage some of Metal Gear Solid and Kojima’s reputation?

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Kojima Unveils the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Gameplay Trailer

I’m furiously working on my write-up of the Xbox One press event and hope to have that online in a couple of hours. For now, let’s tide you over with this fantastic trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It’s supposed to be actual gameplay footage and, if it is, it looks amazing. Maybe this next generation of consoles isn’t such a bad thing, even if MGS5 looks a bit like Red Dead Redemption.

Much to Everyone’s Surprise The Phantom Pain is Metal Gear Solid V

At GDC, Heido Kojima let us in on the biggest secret in the video game industry that isn’t really a secret at all. The Phantom Pain, a game originally teased at the 2012 Spike TV Video Game Awards, is actually the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V. The game will combine the previously unveiled Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain and will officially be titled Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

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Building (Critical) Consensus: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Crysis 3 wasn’t the only noteworthy release to come out on Tuesday. Sure, the Metal Gear franchise may not be as big as it once was but Kojima is still a big deal to gamers. The creatively titled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance may only star Raiden but the sword play shown off ahead of release sure looked impressive. So what did the critics think? Read the rest of this entry

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