Konami And Kojima ‘Should Kiss And Make Up,’ Says EA’s Peter Moore
The ongoing breakup between Konami and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has turned into the video game industry equivalent of a Hollywood split-up the likes of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Electronic Art’s Peter Moore thinks things will work out between the crazy couple though. First, they just need to “kiss and make up.”
Moore was doing an interview with GameSpot when he was asked if Kojima was someone that Electronic Arts would be interested in working with after the developer leaves Konami. The EA Chief Operating Officer had nothing but praise for the man behind Metal Gear, but he’d rather the see the two work out their differences than pick the developer up on the rebound.
Thanks @Rob_Crossley_ for providing me with the platform to discuss the great work going on here @EA https://t.co/iof35aMDsp
— Peter Moore (@petermooreEA) August 13, 2015
“I’ve always liked Kojima-san,” Moore said. “I got on with him during my days at Microsoft. I just think… what’s going on there… I just think both of them should kiss and make up.”
The relationship is indeed troubled right now as the rumored working conditions at Konami can only be described as oppressive and the publisher scrubbed Kojima’s name from everything related to Metal Gear Solid V. There’s still a shot though according to Moore.
“From my experience, and I’ve spent a lot of time working in Japan, I think that Konami and Kojima will figure it out,” he explained. “Those kinds of business relationships [in Japan] are typically for life, and Kojima is such an important part in what has gone on there.”
“Clearly, they’re at a rocky stage in their marriage,” Moore said before later adding, “They’ll kiss and make up. They’ll be fine.”
The rumors of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain running up a huge budget by Konami’s standards after multiple delays was also addressed by Moore. He explained that these kinds of issues that are common with the development of games.
“You could take what is said about [Kojima Productions], about a game not adhering to budgets, about a game not being ready, and you could apply that to a lot of people,” Moore said before agreeing to the example of Rockstar North and Grand Theft Auto V.
“Any game that isn’t iterative in nature the way an EA Sports game is, or any series that doesn’t ship every single year… those things can go on forever. Ever,” he continued. “There needs to be an agreement between the publisher and developer to make sure that both parties understand when the game is supposed to ship, and what it’s supposed to be.”
Moore is spot on in his assessment here as we’ve seen a trend of AAA games either being delayed to ensure a smooth release or in obvious need of extra development time due to buggy releases. A recent example of the former would be Uncharted 4 while the PC release of Batman: Arkham Knight is a prime use case of the latter.
[Images via Metal Gear Solid V, Crave Online]
