Geoff Keighley: Konami Banned Hideo Kojima From Accepting Any MGS V Awards

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
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Happyninja42 said:
MarsAtlas said:
SweetShark said:
I know this is very sad to hear, but is there an actually a REAL reason why Konami did that? Like not because "Konami are assh*les, f*ck Konami"? A real realistic reason?
Hypothetically Kojima could've gone on stage and used it as a platform to bash Konami publically. That would just prevent him from going on stage, however. Konami wanted him banned from the entire event. Thats just plain spite.
I think the person is asking (and so am I for that matter), if there was any actual tangible reason for this Anti-Kojima campaign on their part? Did he actually do anything that would (at least in the eyes of Konami), justify their efforts to blacklist him?
My understanding - which could very easily be flawed or outright incorrect - is that the CEO/President of Konami is wanting to get out of AAA and go for Mobile and Pachinko machines. Keep in mind: Konami is in numerous other industries other than the gaming industry. They sell appliances, furniture, all sorts of other stuff.

Anyways, from what I've heard Kojima was going past-deadline and way overbudget with MGS5...and with Konami wanting to get out of AAA all together, Kojima was thus clashing directly with their intent. I'd imagine there was a lot of friction between him and the CEO/President of the company.
 

OneCatch

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I don't even rate Kojima, but what the fuck is wrong with these people? Did Kojima sleep with all the Board's wives or something?

Normally with this kind of corporate bollocks you can at least see the motivation: EA want to challenge Steam and avoid piracy; hence Origin. Ubi want to compete with annual COD releases, hence Assassins Creed being unfinished.

But with this, I don't even see what they're trying to do. What do Konami gain by firing, and then doing their level best to persecute, one of their primary artistic assets? Even if they want to move toward arcade games, why do they need to try to destroy Kojima to do so?
 

LordLundar

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Abomination said:
Guys...

Stop. Buying. Konami. Products.

Yes, even Metal Gear. Just stop buying their shit.

If you see their label on anything, don't buy it.

If you're complaining about their actions and you bought Phantom Pain - you are part of the problem. It was no secret that Konami were a bunch of twatwaffles before that game was released and you bought it anyway.
Well, that won't be too hard. I have no mobile devices and even if I lived in Japan, Pachinko machines are the equivelant to slot machines here in NA and I don't gamble.

Now that said, considering the train wreck of the show I would say the only winner out of all of this is Kojima. Konami looks pathetic, The Award Show is a joke, and the only thing Kojima lost out of it was not having to deal with the most pretentious assholes in the industry. If I were in Kojima's shoes, I would say they did me a favour.
 

Saltyk

Sane among the insane.
Sep 12, 2010
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Abomination said:
Guys...

Stop. Buying. Konami. Products.

Yes, even Metal Gear. Just stop buying their shit.

If you see their label on anything, don't buy it.

If you're complaining about their actions and you bought Phantom Pain - you are part of the problem. It was no secret that Konami were a bunch of twatwaffles before that game was released and you bought it anyway.
You know with everything that Konami has been doing in recent days, I didn't even want to play MGSV. I lost all my hype for the game between them taking Kojima's name off the game, effectively firing him, and pachinko machines. And it sucks. Because Konami has so many great games and IPs. But their actions have left such a bad taste in my mouth that even Metal Gear couldn't wash it out.

I'm just waiting for them to further twist the knife with a Suikoden pachinko machine.
 

devilmore

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Nov 18, 2009
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WoW, Konami sure saw EAs winning streak of worst company of the year and though "We can beat that!"
 

CrazyGirl17

I am a banana!
Sep 11, 2009
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And once again, Konami proves they're run by brain-dead chimps who don't understand what good decisions are. Honestly, I can't wait to hear what Jim Sterling has to say about this gaff!

...also, #FuckKonami.
 

EternallyBored

Terminally Apathetic
Jun 17, 2013
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OneCatch said:
I don't even rate Kojima, but what the fuck is wrong with these people? Did Kojima sleep with all the Board's wives or something?

Normally with this kind of corporate bollocks you can at least see the motivation: EA want to challenge Steam and avoid piracy; hence Origin. Ubi want to compete with annual COD releases, hence Assassins Creed being unfinished.

But with this, I don't even see what they're trying to do. What do Konami gain by firing, and then doing their level best to persecute, one of their primary artistic assets? Even if they want to move toward arcade games, why do they need to try to destroy Kojima to do so?
It could just be timing though. I mean, if the Activision/Infinity Ward feud had just started right around the release of its last CoD game and lawsuits were being filed, would Activision have let the old Infinity Ward employees up on stage to accept an award for a game series that they (Infinity Ward) didn't own the rights to and were in contention with the company that did?

Even without contention, lifetime achievement awards are given to people rather than game series for a similar reason, because there's no way in hell Microsoft is going to let old Bungie employees accept an award for Halo, they would send Microsoft or 343 studio employees, because Microsoft owns Halo, not bungie, just like Konami owns MGS, not Kojima.

Kojima is one of those rare developers where his name and style is known above the studio he works for, but in the end, MGS still doesn't belong to him, and he was basically just fired, that it happened so fast and so soon after the games release is why I think we are running into this situation.

It's understandable in that Konami doesn't want fired employees, especially ones that the other company execs might have some bad blood with, coming up to accept awards for games it owns the rights to, in most cases the audience wouldn't be able to tell the difference because we tend to recognize the studio rather than individual employees at the studio. Kojima's status as a sort of celebrity, and the constant news stories about his breakup with Konami make this a notable story as instead of associating the development studio with the game, we associate it as an artistic work created by Kojima himself, which makes it seem like a personal attack.

Still comes off as a dick move, but I can see what the logic Konami is likely using here, you don't let a terminated employee accept an award for something you own, not only does it create problems, it creates a weird legal risk if kojima ever tries to sue for the rights of MGS. I have no idea how the Japanese legal system works, but an American judge would look at an ex-employee who directed the creation of a game being allowed to accept an award for said game after their termination as a confounding factor if that creator ever tried to sue the company for the intellectual rights to said game.
 

EHKOS

Madness to my Methods
Feb 28, 2010
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I had a lot of different ways to say what I wanted to say. In the end, I can't say any of them. Nothing will accurately describe how I feel about this situation.

#FucKonami
 

Ishigami

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Sep 1, 2011
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SweetShark said:
I know this is very sad to hear, but is there an actually a REAL reason why Konami did that? Like not because "Konami are assh*les, f*ck Konami"? A real realistic reason?
As mentioned before, and of course publicly denied [http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2015/09/28/konami-our-commitment-to-aaa-console-games-has-never-changed] by Konami themselves, they currently in the process of restructuring their company and on their way out of video games.
Videogames are considered high risk and low reward by Konami and they currently hold a very comfortable market position with Pachinko machines.
Kojima and Konami are apparently on bad terms since Kojima's games tend to go way beyond their projected budgets. MGSV for example is rumored [http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/09/06/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-sells-3-million-units-but-its-not-out-of-the-woods-yet] to never ever break even.
It could be argued that this is partly payback for wasting the company's money.
The other part maybe due to Japanese strange working ethics and culture. I refer you to window watchers [http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/09/japan-downsize-mizhuho-merger-zombies-tokyo-dispatch.html].
Either the bosses of Konami feel embarrassed about Kojima actually going and therefore want to hide it as much as possible or they actually want to force Kojima out bascially bulling him until he leaves out of his own will.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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Nov 19, 2009
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It is kind of amusing at how spiteful and petty Konami has become. If this is how they're being run it's only a matter of time before, like all idiots businessmen, that the CEO changes his mind about mobile and gambling machines if they ever have a slow quarter and tries to get into something else only to then change his mind with that and so on and so forth. It's amusing to see what happens when people lose sight of professional behavior.
 

Fox12

AccursedT- see you space cowboy
Jun 6, 2013
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MarsAtlas said:
I think we should start using "Konami" as a verb to describe something bad that has happened to you in a game. Get your butt whupped by Ornstein and Smough? They Konami'd you so hard. CTD right before you get to a save point? You just got Konami'd. VAC banned for being on the same server as a hacker? Thats a Konami right to the face. Save file got corrupted? You got Konami'd to tears. Got to download 14 GB of data before you can play that brand new game you've been waiting years for? You've been mercilessly Konami'd.

FirstNameLastName said:
Their absolute devotion to becoming a cliched Saturday-morning-cartoon villain is almost commendable. Almost.
I'm starting to think they're jealous of EA's Worst Company in America Award
Unfortunately since they're not american the best that they can get is an honourary mention.
They'll win anyway.

A Hot-Konami

-The feeling you get when konami rapes everything you love.

"This hurts worse then the time I played SH2, and pyramid head gave a mannequin a hot-Konami."
 

Tsun Tzu

Feuer! Sperrfeuer! Los!
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Jul 19, 2010
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Hideo must've nailed a few CEO's daughters for this level of contempt and spitefulness to be a thing.

In a way?

I'd be kind of honored.

It's not every day that an entire corporation goes this far out of its way to wreck one person's life.
 

Darth_Payn

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Aug 5, 2009
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So when were/are these awards on TV, if they're even worth watching?
This is some straight-up bullshit from Konami right here.
 

MonsterCrit

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Imperioratorex Caprae said:
Really Konami... you absolutely deserve the FucKonami hate. Not even EA or Activision has been this petty. Can't wait until Kojima gets out from under their thumb.
Wow. it's really painful to watch the company that stabled such great games as Gradius, COntra, Castlevania, Metal Gear... has sunk this low...
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
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Barbas said:
Disgraceful, disgusting company. Shameful display.
I wouldn't normally stoop this low, but seeing how Konami's been treating its employees and how Kojima's team, specifically, was handled, I'd say this needs to be upgraded to its actually scathing and proper form.

In other words, it's not a "shameful display", it's a SHAMEFUR DISPRAY. The "commit Seppuku" kind of display.
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

Warning! Contains bananas!
Jun 21, 2009
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Is Konami run by a bunch of 8 year olds? Because judging by their behavior, I can only see them as petty & bratty children.
 

Hero of Lime

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Jun 3, 2013
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I definitely want to give Geoff Keighley props for being so honest with the audience when he could have just been diplomatic. He flat out said it was "inconceivable" that Kojima could not be there to accept an award. He could have stayed neutral, but he sided with his friend over Konami, and I respect that.

While the Game Awards may not be this amazing thing to me, there is a lot to it that is pretty cool. The honoring of Westwood Studios would not have been done on Spike TV, and I bet the touching Iwata Tribute would have been replaced with some commercials, but Keighley wanted to honor some great people in the industry.
 

MCerberus

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Jun 26, 2013
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If we're turning publishers into verbs, why end at Konami?

EA: to do something harmful through both malice and idiocy and be unaware this effects relationships. (Kathrine's brother Bob is in the closet. Kathrine EA'd him by letting it slip to their conservative parents)

Activision: to repeat and/or talk about a success so much it becomes meaningless and annoying. (At high school reunions, jocks are prone to Activision while everyone else just nods and tries to find alcohol)

Valve: to absorb a ton of attention, blame, and praise by ultimately doing very little. (Who would want to be president? they just Valve all day.)

Squenix: to blame a competent party for the failure of an incompetent one. (Steve screwed up again, but he's a family friend of the boss, who's going to be Squeenixed this time?)
 

Atmos Duality

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Mar 3, 2010
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I must say, the overt display of corporate nihilism is refreshingly honest.
After so much wishy-washy politically oriented controversy, it's nice to see an issue where it's literally black and white.

Now, I don't put ANY stock in any games awards program; so witnessing this sort of petty jab at a former employee just...this doesn't set the new low bar record for "petty legal bitchery", this move piledrives the bar into new territory.