A Hideo Kojima Entry
About
A Hideo Kojima Game is a brand name on the box cover and titles of video games that were directed by famed game designer Hideo Kojima. The brand gained notability online after video game publisher Konami removed Kojima’s name from his studio, the box cover and all promotional ads for Metal Gear Soild V: The Phantom Pain as part of the rumored fracture between the two.
Origin
On March 19th, 2015, several gaming news sites including Kotaku,[1] PC Gamer,[4] Polygon,[5] and Eurogamer[6] reported about the rumor that Hideo Kojima might be leaving Konami, among the evidence include the renaming of Kojima Productions Los Angeles into Konami Los Angeles Studio and the removal of Hideo Kojima’s name from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s title on the official Konami website (shown below, top was before the change).
On July 14th, 2015, a NeoGAF thread was submitted by user Love Deterrence that shows the final version of the official box art for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which reveals Kojima’s brand being completely removed.[7]
Spread
The brand name has become the subject of discussion on a number of websites including Tumblr[8] and 4chan.[9] Over on Twitter[10] and Tumblr,[11] the hashtag #AHideoKojimaGame was launched by fans in response to the removal of the brand by Konami and to show their support towards Hideo Kojima.
On August 4th, 2015, Konami announced the release date for Metal Gear Solid V for the PC on the game’s Steam community page.[12] On the same day, users began spamming the comment section of the announcement with the brand name as part of their protest towards the removal of Kojima’s name.
On August 19th, 2015, JB Hi-Fi, an electronic retail store in Australia, began placing their stock of Metal Gear Solid V on display. Among the promotional campaigns include adding Kojima’s brand name on game display shelves across all stores in Australia. On the same day, Twitter user and JB employee Jasmin Lee tweeted a photo of one of the stores. in the coming days, the tweet gained over 400 favorites and was retweeted more than 350 times, among them by Hideo Kojima himself.[12] In the coming days, news of the promotional campaign was covered by a number of gaming news sites including Kotaku,[13] Polygon,[14] Metro,[15] and IGN.[16]
On august 31st, 2015, an image was submitted to the image sharing site Imgur which shows the PSN cover for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain that still has Kojima’s brand name on the title.[17] The image gathered over 62.300 views and was shared on r/MetalGearSolid where it gathered over 1.260 points (98% upvoted) and over 150 comments.[18]
On September 1st, 2015, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released. On the game’s steam page, users began spamming the Steam reviews with Kojima’s brand name. On the same day, news of the steam reviews was covered by Kotaku.[19]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Kotaku – Why People Think Hideo Kojima Is No Longer At Konami
[2]Wayback Machine – The MGSV site before the change
[3]Konami – The MGSV site after the change
[4]PC Gamer – Kojima name vanishes from Metal Gear Solid 5 materials
[5]Polygon – Konami removes Kojima name from Metal Gear games, Kojima rumored to leave
[6]Eurogamer – Hideo Kojima’s name removed from Metal Gear Solid 5 branding
[7]NeoGAF – Metal Gear Solid V final box art
[8]Tumblr – Search for a Hideo Kojima Game
[9]archive.moe – Search for a Hideo Kojima Game
[10]Twitter – Search for #AHideoKojimaGame
[11]Tumblr – Search for #AHideoKojimaGame
[12]Steam community – MGSV PC Launch Date Sep 1st
[12]Twitter – YER take that Konami
[13]Kotaku – Australian Retailer Sticks It To Konami
[14]Polygon – Retailer reminds us that Metal Gear Solid 5 is, in fact, a Hideo Kojima game
[15]Metro – Australian shop puts back Hideo Kojimas Metal Gear Solid V credit
[16]IGN– AUSTRALIANSTOREADDS KOJIMA’S NAMEBACK TO METALGEARSOLID 5
[17]Imgur – PSN The Phantom Pain
[18]reddit – Hey Konami, you missed one! A HIDEOKOJIMAGAME visible on PS4 MGSV Icon.
[19]Kotaku – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews