It just doesn’t seem to end does it? After the Japanese voice actor of Solid Snake reported that Kojima Productions has been “dissolved“, Hideo Kojima’s name - and the name of the developer, Kojima Productions, has been completely wiped from the cover of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

Kojima himself isn’t the only casualty in the ‘newly designed’ artwork however. The Kojima Productions logo has also been taken off the cover, seemingly confirming the studio’s demise. They had both already had their names and company logo removed from the Metal Gear website. Originally, the cover for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain looked like this:

Following Konami’s decision to revise the cover, it now looks like this :

The main thing to note about this, is how completely obvious Konami have made it that they want Kojima’s name and any likeness of him as far removed from the game as they possibly can. It’ll be interesting to see how Kojima and Kojima Productions is credited when Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is released on September 1 on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One (September 15th for PC). If Konami is willing to remove Kojima’s name and company logo from the cover, how far can they (or will they) go to remove references to him and Kojima Productions in-game?

Despite The Phantom Pain being the last entry that series creator Kojima will work on, Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear Solid will continue without him. Whether that will be on home console and PC, however, is up in the air - the publisher recently announced that it is repositioning the company to focus primarily on games for mobile devices.

Both Konami and Kojima have steadfastly refused to sling mud at one another so far (at least in public), which is laudable. How long that will last after Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is released however, is something we’ll have to wait and see. Many fans have directed their ire at Konami for the way it has dealt with the situation, if the fans feel that way - exactly how does Hideo Kojima himself feel?