Hideo Kojima was “locked in a separate room on a different floor than his development team” for the final six months of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s development, according to veteran gaming journalist Geoff Keighley.
Keighley revealed the full extent of Kojima’s difficult relationship with Konami in a wide-ranging interview with Glixel, published ahead of this evening’s Game Awards.
Kojima is set to appear at tonight’s ceremony to receive the 2016 Industry Icon Award, a year on from being banned from attending the Keighley-curated awards by Konami’s lawyers.
“The fact that he finished that game under those circumstances is just amazing,” Keighley added. “He couldn’t even talk to [his development team] – he had to talk through someone else. That’s how that game was finished.”
Kojima’s strained relationship and subsequent parting of ways with Konami has been widely reported over the past 12 months, but this is the first time we’ve learned of the actual impact it had on the final development months of Metal Gear Solid V.
