In August, a report by Japanese news site Nikkei found that Konami employees were subject to the kind of working conditions that'd make Oliver Twist think "bollocks to this" and return to his old job at the workhouse. From non-security cameras that monitor the movements of employees and randomised emails that are changed by the company regularly to avoid employees being headhunted, to developers being forced to work long hours as cleaning staff or factory workers if they're not seen as 'useful' at a given time. The remnants of Hideo Kojima's in-house studio, meanwhile, Kojima Productions, have been renamed to Number 8 Production Department and don't have access to the internet - something deemed so necessary that even prison inmates have it. In fairness to Konami, they do actually offer their employees monitored internet access - evidenced by when an employee shared a status on Facebook that he was leaving the company, and any employees who 'Liked' the comment were punished through various demotions. The current mess at Konami feels like the Last Days of Rome, and you have to wonder if they're on the verge of a cataclysmic implosion. We may moan about major publishers being cheeky with their micro-transactions and DLC, but what Konami is doing here is bordering on Human Rights violations, and should make people think twice about buying their games. With that said, if you really want to buy MGS V, that's fine so long as you repeatedly tell yourself that you're buying it in support of Kojima Productions rather than Konami.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
