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NEWS: Konami Denies Report of Hideo Kojima Leaving Company

Reading a few Japanese news sites talking about this on my phone earlier, most of the people commenting who are pretty knowledgeable about Japanese business said that Konami's denial is pretty standard business stuff. Yes, he's gone. We all know he's gone. They know they're only saving face and that most of us know he's gone. But if they don't save face, they could face legal contract-breaking problems. Kojima probably broke the contract himself, with their mutual involvement, but they don't want to puncture his record and he doesn't want to puncture their record, so they're mutually agreeing on the "extrended vacation" and foreigners trying to expose the lie are just going to make this process more difficult for both parties.

Could someone give a summary of why Kojima left Konami?

Kadmos1 wrote:

Could someone give a summary of why Kojima left Konami?

Him leaving was tied to Konami essentially removing him and his staff off of Metal Gear Solid V near the end of it's production. The reasons for which have never been explained.

don't forget their canceling of silent hills? Although that might have just been fallout.

Reading a few Japanese news sites talking about this on my phone earlier, most of the people commenting who are pretty knowledgeable about Japanese business said that Konami's denial is pretty standard business stuff. Yes, he's gone. We all know he's gone. They know they're only saving face and that most of us know he's gone. But if they don't save face, they could face legal contract-breaking problems. Kojima probably broke the contract himself, with their mutual involvement, but they don't want to puncture his record and he doesn't want to puncture their record, so they're mutually agreeing on the "extrended vacation" and foreigners trying to expose the lie are just going to make this process more difficult for both parties.

Aside from the obvious disliking of foreigners prying into Japanese business claims, it makes sense that they probably had to do some not-so preferable things to break the contract legally. I still think his reputation is big enough that a contract break is not going to soil it, but while I do know a lot about Japanese business, I don't know enough to comment on the way the businesses in the gaming industry work their employee contracts. Well, especially Konami. So whatever.

Westerners, particularly North Americans, greatly value honesty. They want their companies to be upfront and transparent with no pretenses. It's why leaders like Steve Jobs and Satoru Iwata were so well-liked: They were the faces of their companies and acknowledged each time their companies made missteps.

At this point I almost WANT Konami to keep digging deeper just because I want to see how far the rabbit hole goes.

They've already taken the red pill, there's no turning back anymore.

Could someone give a summary of why Kojima left Konami?

A normal company planning to scale down console for mobile would do it slowly and deliver on things it already announced (like MGSV and Silent Hills)

Actually companies even those not intimately involved with mobile gaming very rarely deliver with games they announce due to either the game winding up in development hell and under going various changes during the process or being cancelled somewhere in between.

In Konami's case it's not. A financially healthy company with a game division that is profitable with talented staff, even if they were to change their focus would either -
a) scale down projects to do only a few with some potential reduction to staff.
b) scale down budgets of projects.
c) spin off or sell the division while it's IPs are valuable and the division is in the green.