Hideo Kojima

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About

Hideo Kojima (小島秀夫 Kojima Hideo) is a Japanese video game developer who is best known for developing games in the Metal Gear and Castlevania franchises. Online, he is often regarded as a troll for trying to mislead fans and shrouding his works in mystery.

History

Work at Konami

Kojima first joined the gaming industry by joining Konami in 1986 with his first game he worked on being Penguin Adventure^[1] adding many elements that had not been considered originally by the team working on it. Kojima was first tasked with helping create Metal Gear in 1987 when limitations in the hardware were slowing down production time. Kojima rose the ranks of the company eventually becoming vice president of Konami in 2011 from his works.

A Hideo Kojima Game

On March 19th, 2015, several gaming news sites reported about a rumor that Kojima might be leaving Konami.^[3]^[4]^[5] On July 14th, a NeoGAF thread was submitted by user Love Deterrence that featured the final version of the official box art for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which reveals Kojima’s brand being completely removed. The removal spurred Twitter users to launch the hashtag #AHideoKojimaGame in protest of the decision.

Departure from Konami

On October 19th, 2015, The New Yorker published an article about an anonymous source who claimed that Hideo Kojima has left Konami since October 9th.^[18] Konami denied the claim and stated that Kojima is still an employee in the company and is currently on vacation after the completion of Metal Gear Soild V.^[19] On October 20th, Simon Parker who wrote the article on The New Yorker posted an image on Twitter of Kojima's farewell party that Konami has denied to have occurred.^[20]

On December 15th, 2015, Hideo Kojima announcesd via his Twitter account that his employment contract with Konami has been terminated.^[21]

On the same day, Sony Computer Entertainment announced their official partnership with Hideo Kojima and his new independent studio, Kojima Productions, in developing a new game exclusively to the Playstation 4.

Online Presence

I'm Alright

I'm Alright refers to a tweet made on March 11th, 2011 (shown below), by Kojima during the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, confirming his safety because many fans began to worry if Hideo had died in the disaster^[7].

I'm alright.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 11, 2011

Because of the simplicity of the tweet, many parodies and photoshops were spawned. Many gaming related news sites and forums reported on tweet^[8]^[9]^[10].

Ruse Cruises

Ruse Cruises refer to the way fans of Kojima interpret actions that may or may not be intentional often delving into a conspiracy involving Kojima. Circa mid-2015, a thread^[11] titled "/v/'s Ruse Cruise by Kojima" was created on the subreddit r/MetalGearSolid featuring a screencap of a /v/ thread discussing a possible ruse set up by Kojima about the upcoming Metal Gear game (shown below, left). Many gaming centric sites have reported on Kojima's possible trolling and ruses^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]. Kojima has also stated^[16] multiple times that he will be leaving Metal Gear alone before releasing or revealing the next game in the series (shown below, right).

Personal Life

Hideo Kojima was born on August 24th, 1963, in Tokyo Japan. Much of his early life was influenced by video games and movies which both got him to chase the career he currently has. Kojima cites^[17] Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto as being major roles in what got him into gaming.