Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, games, Geoff Keighley, hideo kojima, Konami, video games

Konami Blocked Hideo Kojima From Attending The Game Awards

Published Fri, 04 Dec 2015 04:05:26 -0600

Well, here is another in a long line of PR mishaps regrading the Konami and Hideo Kojima split.

Last night, during The Game Awards, host Geoff Keighley announced that Hideo Kojima would not be attending the awards, despite him having every intention too. The reason? Konami's lawyers blocked the developer from leaving the country as he is still under some sort of contract with the publisher. Keighley however, had no qualms about throwing the publisher under a bus. He said during the ceremony:

As you noticed, Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I want to tell you a little about that. Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight, but unfortunately he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight's awards ceremony to accept any awards. [crowd boos] He's still under an employment contract. And it's disappointing and it's inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates.

You know what? I say fairplay to Keighley. The political thing to do here would have been to say 'Kojima couldn't be here tonight', but instead his journalist roots showed through and he gave the industry and audience the full story.

This is just another mishap in a long line of mishaps, however, this is probably the most explicitly public. From what we know, Kojima's contract finally runs out in December, so hopefully…something will happen with the developer soon.

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