[UPDATE on April 12th, 2015]
Donna Burke has redacted her claims, or rather clarified that she didn’t mean to say that Hideo Kojima was fired, she only wanted to plead with fans to not cancel their pre-orders or avoid buying Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain because of the debacle between Konami and Kojima Productions.
She posted her message on her official Facebook page:
I agree, Konami- I should be more accurate.
“Don’t throw away the last 5 years because Konami changed the contract status of a genius”
Konami is correct in that Kojima has not actually been fired. As I stated previously he and his team are still working hard on getting the game out. My sincere apologies to Konami, Hideo Kojima and the fans for giving the wrong impression.
I was trying to add my voice to Otsuka-san pleading with the fans to not abandon MGSV because of the stuff happening at Konami and to throw my support behind Kojima and everyone who has worked over the last five years and is working to make this game the greatest ever.
This is true. Kojima himself confirmed in a statement that he was still “100% involved” in the completion of The Phantom Pain, and was “determined to make it the greatest game I’ve directed to date.”
So my apologies for upsetting you all. — Donna Burke
[ORIGINAL STORY]
Donna Burke, the voice actress who lent her talents to Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, has spoken out (via VideoGamer) regarding the entire debacle between Hideo Kojima and his publisher, Konami. According to her, Kojima has been “fired” by Konami:
“Yes don’t throw away the Kojima teams work over the last 5 years because upper management fired a genius,” wrote Burke on her personal twitter. When asked whether or not that was a confirmation that Kojima was indeed fired, she replied. “Yes but it’s been out in the media for weeks..but it’s true.”
Konami has since responded to these statements, telling VideoGamer that Donna’s claims are “categorically incorrect.” The wording of this is very interesting, as this could be chalked up to many interpretations.
For those in need of a refresher – we’ve been following the developments behind Metal Gear Solid creator and mastermind Hideo Kojima, who has been rumored to be parting ways with Konami, due to altercations with his team, Kojima Productions, and the upper management at Konami.
We’ll keep you guys posted.
