Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain‘s production cost of $80 million-plus along with a delay are the alleged root of the dispute. If the production cost is at $80 million, this would make it the 18th most expensive game developed.
This has brought the iconic developer into conflict with the publishers leadership, who is trying to focus more on freemium games. It has been acknowledged by several sources in Konami that following the success of Dragon Collection, the publisher has been working to restructure the company to focus on the development of mobile games.
Friction between Kojima and Konami was first noticed when Kojima Studios was removed from promotional material followed by the cancellation of Silent Hills. Then in July, Konami officially removed Hideo Kojima’s name from the cover of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
The original article from Nikkei is only in Japanese but it has been translated by Thomas James, a freelance translator known for his work in the gaming industry.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the tenth game in the series and follows the events of Ground Zeroes. After the attack on Mother Base, Big Boss awakes from a coma only to establishes a new mercenary army while seeking revenge against XOF. The game is set to be released in September 2015 for all major consoles and the PC.
