Hideo Kojima left Konami earlier this month - report

UPDATE: Konami sounds confused, reckon Kojima's just on holiday.

News by Jeffrey Matulef Contributor

Updated on Oct. 20, 2015

UPDATE 20/10/2015: Konami has issued a statement to Tokyo Sports (translated by Kotaku), denying Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has left the company.

"Currently, Kojima is a listed as a company employee [at Konami]," a Konami spokesperson said.

"Currently, Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid 5 and are taking a long time off from work."

Yesterday, a report in The New Yorker discussed Kojima's farewell party. "We're not sure what kind of thing this was," the Konami spokesperson said when asked about it.

"Because the development time for console games is so long and fatigues builds up, it's common for employees to take extended periods of time of when development is finished."

It sounds like Konami is a little confused about the status of its superstar designer.

Simon Parkin, author of the New Yorker article, took to Twitter to help Konami out.

Here is a photograph of Kojima's farewell party on October 9th at Konami, which Konami claims no knowledge of: pic.twitter.com/xgRUoYs5qt
— Simon Parkin (@SimonParkin) October 20, 2015

ORIGINAL STORY 19/10/2015: Hideo Kojima's last day working for Konami was 9th October, according to a report from the New Yorker.

So long, Kojima. May you continue to put your crazy designer glasses in whatever future endeavors await.

We've known Kojima's relationship with Konami has been strained for a while now, as the publisher removed the director's name from all marketing around Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and took the developer off the board of directors back in March. It's since shuttered his studio, Kojima Productions, resulting in a game that felt blatantly unfinished at times.

Konami also cancelled Kojima's Silent Hills project he was collaborating with Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus on.

Initial reports claimed Kojima would remain with Konami until his contract expired at the end of the year, but it sounds as if either he or Konami couldn't wait that long, or perhaps the earlier report was off by a few months.

The New Yorker also noted that The Phantom Pain made an estimated $179m on launch day, exceeding double its reported budget of $80m. Perhaps that will sway Konami to keep a foot in the console market after all? It's said before it plans to keep making Metal Gear games and I know I wouldn't mind another Revengeance.

We've reached out to Konami to verify that the New Yorker report was correct, but have yet to hear back.