10 Times Publishers Screwed Over A Video Game
5. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The game which drove a wedge between Konami and Kojima ended up with the eccentric developer leaving the company and setting up shop elsewhere, resulting in Death Stranding. Only time will tell if it was worth having a compromised Metal Gear Solid so that Death Stranding could exist, but one thing’s for sure: MGS V would have been very different without publisher meddling.
MGS V is still a fairly decent game, but it’s certainly not up to the quality Hideo Kojima had initially wanted.
With Kojima a perfectionist working without much oversight, the game was much bigger, would take much longer, and would cost more than initially anticipated. Konami viewed this as unacceptable, and forced Kojima into several compromises.
Things were so bad Kojima was separated from his team, forced to work in a different office, only communicating through middlemen. Clearly, these are ridiculous working conditions which hamstrung the game’s development process.
In the end, Kojima’s name was even taken off the official box art, despite his creativity being a huge selling point for MGS. Playing the game felt a little sour too, as you knew Kojima wanted to do so much more with it.