7 Ways Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Is Better Than Phantom Pain

3. Phantom Pain Was Marred By Awful Business Practices Pre-Release

Kojima versus Konami - pick a side and fight it out! Throughout the spring of 2015 we seemed to be reading greater numbers of news stories that focused on the on/off relationship between Konami and Kojima. Did they not give thanks for Kojima and his team's efforts? Were they not proud of his name? We saw that Kojima was to be removed from the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and that was only the tip of the iceberg. Internet commenters seemed unsure what was really going on, and questioned if Kojima was up to his publicity-chasing ploys again, a la MGS 2 and the Raiden switch. Come September 2015 the packaging was revealed to be scrubbed clean of Kojima's name altogether, begging the question; why keep it for Ground Zeroes but remove it for The Phantom Pain? This is a side-note in the annals of gaming industry history, really, but it felt like each preview or news story didn't cover game features for the audience to get excited about, instead casting doubt on Kojima's ability to finish the game itself. It didn't tarnish the final product too much, but it certainly cast a strange shadow over it - what was more important to fans: the name, or the game?