Konami Denies Hideo Kojima Has Left, Says He's 'On Vacation'

Earlier today, The New Yorker published a story reporting that Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima parted ways with Konami earlier this month. The Tokyo based game company is denying this report, saying that Hideo Kojima is still an employee and is currently “on vacation.” Update 7:32am – The author of The New Yorker piece, Simon Parkin, tweeted a photo (below) of what he maintains is the farewell party. Of course, it could be a get together before a long vacation or just another entry in the seemingly strange goings on at Konami.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1737501388","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"uncategorized","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"uncategorized","TAGS":"metal-gear-solid","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); According to Tokyo Sports, a spokesperson at Konami’s Tokyo headquarters said, “Currently, Kojima is listed as a company employee [at Konami].” Konami denied that he has left the company. “Currently, Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid V and are taking a long time off from work.” When asked about the farewell party, Konami replied, “We’re not sure what kind of thing this was.” This pretext of H25 a “vacation” could be a way for a long fade out, but Konami insisted, “Because the development time for console games is so long h25 com สล็อต​ and fatigue builds up, it’s common for employees to take extended periods of time off h25 com เข้าสู่ระบบ​ when development is finished.” A source close to Konami previously told Kotaku that Kojima’s contract ends this December. Kotaku reached out to Konami for clarification, but did not hear back before publication. Here is a photograph of Kojima's farewell party on October 9th at Konami, which Konami claims no knowledge of: pic.twitter.com/xgRUoYs5qt — Simon Parkin (@SimonParkin) October 20, 2015 To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.