When Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain won an award for best action/adventure game during the Game Awards, the series creator and director was not there to accept the award. Konami had done everything within their power to keep Hideo Kojima far away from the event.
As if keeping Kojima from the event wasn't humiliating enough, in March Konami removed Kojima's name from the games he created and they published (they eventually put his name back). Between March and November, Konami publically humiliated Kojima and made a majority of the fanbase upset – including Square Enix's former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Yoichi Wada.
Wada took to Facebook (as translated by Kotaku) to share his thoughts on Konami's treatment of Kojima, calling it cruel and saying that the company was creating enemies. Overall, Wada concluded that Konami's actions could have 'deplorable' results.
“As I know Mr. Kojima, I want to say, ‘I can’t believe this cruel treatment!’ But, here I’m going to give my thoughts as a corporate exec. However you think about this, this is a negative for business.”
“Maybe leaving the home console market is management’s plan, but going out of your way to make enemies with the world has no meaning…Generally, this kind of thing happens when there’s a lack of leadership. I think, perhaps, there isn’t someone in charge who is paying attention and laying out all the little details for whole enterprise.”
"When you are not aware that the feelings of your own department aren’t aligned with the world at large, the results can be deplorable.”
While the Metal Gear community has been vocal when it comes to this situation, it's interesting to hear what the former CEO of a giant game publisher/developer thinks.
