The Kojima saga’s been a bit of a weird one – so much so that it’d make for a good Hideo Kojima game. After the carry on at the Game Awards last month, it seems Kojima-san can look forward to some straightforward praise after it was announced he’ll be the 21st member to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
Kojima’s last foray into Metal Gear Solid with Konami was really rather good. Check out our PC port review.
So, yeah, it’s been a bit of a yarn this ‘un. After a mysterious falling out last year that saw Konami scrub the illustrious developer’s name from just about every poster, website and advertisement related to his work under them, the publisher’s relationship with the Metal Gear mastermind hit peak weirdness when Konami’s lawyers banned Mr Kojima from attending the Game Awards in December last year.
Kojima won Best Action/Adventure game on the night, but Keifer Sutherland, the latest voice of series protagonist Solid Snake, collected the prize instead. Meanwhile Konami incessantly maintained there was no fight of which to speak of and that Kojima was simply on holiday.
A couple of weeks later, Kojima announced he’d launched a new studio, was working in partnership with Sony, and that his next offering, whenever that may surface, will be coming to PC.
Phew, deep breath.
It’s now been revealed that Hideo Kojima will become the twenty-first member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame and will be presented with the accolade during the DICE Summit on February 18 by none other that Guillermo del Toro – the esteemed director who was set to work with Kojima and Konami on the ill-fated Silent Hills before the aforementioned shit hit the fan.
Martin Rae, the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences praised Kojima for his input to the industry: “Hideo Kojima’s career-defining works have shaped much of how the video game industry approaches cinematic storytelling and player engagement.”
“As one of the most well-loved and well-respected designers of our time, it is a great honor for the academy to induct him into our hall of fame. Hideo is a game creator whose eyes have always looked towards the future, and we look forward to his thoughts on the DICE Summit stage.”