Why did Hideo Kojima leave Konami?
Hideo Kojima
At the 2013 Game Developers Conference, Kojima unveiled "", which was set to be his final "Metal Gear" work, noting that this time unlike previous announcements that he had stopped working on the series, was very serious about leaving. In March 2015, reports began to surface that Kojima would part ways with longtime publisher Konami after the release of "The Phantom Pain". Konami later stated that they were auditioning for new staff for future "Metal Gear" titles and removed Kojima's name from the series' marketing material. Despite reports that Kojima left the company in October 2015, a spokesman for Konami stated that he was "taking a long time off from work." At The Game Awards 2015, "Metal Gear Solid V" won the awards for Best Action Game and Best Score/Soundtrack, but Kojima did not attend the event, being reportedly barred from attending by Konami. Instead, it was accepted by Kiefer Sutherland on his behalf.
Kojima Productions
Though Kojima had been designing games at Konami since 1987, the studio was not officially formed until 2005. However, Konami retroactively referred to Kojima's earlier productions as belonging to the studio. All Kojima Productions games released until 2015 were published by Konami.
Hideo Kojima
In mid-2012 and in the following years after Kojima finished work on the Fox Engine, Kojima has been connected to the "Silent Hill" series. During this time, he indicated that he was interested in making a "Silent Hill" game and the first instance of this was on August 18, 2012. He described his excitement regarding the potential use of the Fox Engine on the eighth generation platforms via a tweet of an image of the DVD for the "Silent Hill" film: Later, he added what he had in mind for this game in a series of tweets: ""Silent Hill" is in closed room setting and doesn’t require full action so that we can focus on the graphic quality. Enemies featured in the game do not have to be consistent or move fast. It only requires scariness by graphics and presentation. As being a creator, making action games in an open world setting, such a type of game is very enviously attractive. If only someone could create this on the Fox Engine." After a while, and as a result of Kojima's interest in making a "Silent Hill" game, Konami asked him to do so. Kojima explained the story in an interview with Eurogamer:
Metal Gear Survive
Metal Gear Survive is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by Konami. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in February 2018. It is the first "Metal Gear" game to be developed following the series' creator Hideo Kojima's departure from Konami in late 2015, and the first since "Snake's Revenge" without Kojima's input. The game takes place between the events of "" and "", and follows the Captain, an MSF soldier who enters a parallel dimension and establishes a local command center in order to unravel the mysteries of a strange virus that turns people into zombie-like creatures.
Hideo Kodama
Kodama was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture. After graduating from the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University in 1900, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Finance, passing his career civil service examinations the same year. He served in a number of bureaucratic posts. During the Russo-Japanese War, he was assigned to the Imperial General Headquarters and sent to the Liaodong Peninsula (under Japanese occupation), where he served as liaison between the civilian government in Tokyo and the Japanese general armies in Manchuria. Following the war, he returned to the Finance Ministry as head of the government's Tobacco Monopoly. He was later assigned to serve in the Japanese Government-General of Korea, as a secretary to the Privy Council, and as a member of the House of Peers. Upon his father's death on 23 July 1906, he inherited the title of viscount and took a seat in the House of Peers. After petitioning the Meiji Emperor, the emperor elevated him to count on 2 October 1907 in recognition of his father's service. From 1916 to 1918, he served as Chief Cabinet Secretary. From 26 Sep 1923 to 17 Dec 1927 Kodama was governor of the Kwantung Leased Territory. In the late 1920s, Kodama was the civilian administrator of Korea.
In October 1934, Kodama was picked to be Minister of Colonization under the Okada administration. In February 1937, he became Minister of Communications under the Hayashi administration. From January to July 1940, Kodama served as Home Minister under the Yonai administration. He visited Java in Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies as a special advisor in 1942 at the request of the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1944, Kodama served as a Minister without portfolio under the Koiso administration, and from February to April 1945, served as Education Minister in the same administration.
Silent Hill
During Sony Computer Entertainment's presentation at Gamescom 2014, an interactive teaser titled "P.T." (short for "Playable Teaser") was released on the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 4. Upon completion of the teaser it was revealed to be for a new "Silent Hill" game entitled "Silent Hills", being developed by Kojima Productions using the Fox Engine, and a collaboration between "Metal Gear" series creator Hideo Kojima and Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro, featuring actor Norman Reedus. On September 1, 2014, Sony revealed during its pre-TGS press conference that "P.T." had been downloaded over a million times and had been viewed over 30,000,000 times across platforms. During the 2015 San Francisco Film Festival on April 26, 2015, del Toro announced that he would no longer be involved in the project with Kojima, presumably due to Kojima's leaving of Konami. Konami later released a statement confirming the departure of Reedus but clarified the series would continue to be developed, with no mention of the current status of "Silent Hills". On April 27, 2015, Konami confirmed that "Silent Hills" was cancelled, but was open to future collaborations with Reedus and del Toro. The P.T. teaser was also pulled from the PlayStation Store and is no longer available for download.
Koji Nakagawa
In 2007, Goemon teamed with Keiichi Kono in the Marvelous Future Tag Team Tournament, where they lost to Kitten Kid and Mineo Fujita in the opening round on January 13. On April 14, the team of Goemon and Hideki Hosaka took on Mr. Gannosuke and Soldier in a tag team match, which ended in a no contest after all four men united with each other and left WMF in storyline to feud with WMF and formed a villainous alliance called KHM Army. However, Goemon left the promotion in the midst of the feud after defeating Chon Shiryu at "5th Anniversary Show" on August 28.
Hiroshi Iuchi
He started his career by joining Konami in 1989 where he worked on a number of arcade titles. In 1992, Iuchi and a number of Konami employees including Masato Maegawa and Norio Hanzawa splintered away from the company to form Treasure. His first game for the new company was the critically acclaimed Gunstar Heroes.
Takao Koyama
He graduated from Waseda University in 1972 and joined to Tatsunoko Production as a story creator and a screenwriter. He left from Tatsunoko in 1975, but he was related to the , one of the most successful anime series of Tatsunoko, from Time Bokan in 1975 to the last series, Itadakiman in 1983. After leaving from Tatsunoko, he wrote several screenplays such as "Dragon Ball" and "Saint Seiya" of Toei Animation.
Hideo Kojima
In 2016, Kojima launched his own YouTube channel, where he and film critic Kenji Yano discuss their favorite films and matters pertaining to Kojima's studio. Starting in 2017, Kojima became a regular contributor to "Rolling Stone", often discussing recent film releases, and occasionally drawing comparisons to his own works.
Michiru Yamane
After writing music for over 40 games at Konami, Yamane left the company in 2008 to become a freelance composer. She came to this decision after getting a pet cat, and growing a desire to slow down her career and move to working from home. She desired to have more freedom to do projects she wanted, and manage her own time. Since becoming a freelance composer, Yamane has continued to compose for video games, as well as films, commercials, television, and anime. She has considered making a solo album. Games that she has composed for include "Otomedius Excellent" (2011) and "Skullgirls" (2012). Although no longer working directly for Konami, she has continued working with the company on "Castlevania" music. She is also composing for Koji Igarashi's "".
Voodoo Murders
Although the phrase Voodoo Murders is thought to be Engrish by some fans, it seems to be a tribute to a pulp magazine called The Voodoo Murders. Voodoo Murders were previously in a heated feud against RO&D which ended on September 17, 2006 when RO&D were forced to disband after losing to the Voodoo Murders. Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI were the All Asia Tag Team Champions before recently losing their title to Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima. Kondo also held the World Junior Heavyweight Championship for over a year before losing it on February 17 to Katsuhiko Nakajima. On June 24, 2007, after months of TARU attempting to recruit him, Satoshi Kojima finally joined the Voodoo Murders; following the main event match pitting Shuji Kondo against Kensuke Office member Katsuhiko Nakajima, the group attacked Nakajima and Kensuke Sasaki, but were aided when Kojima jumped off the turnbuckle and attacked Sasaki. The group continued to beat on Sasaki and everyone that attempted to help him, including Keiji Mutoh. Suwama was sent by the group to Orlando, Florida on July 2, 2007, in order to secure TNA Wrestling star "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner for All Japan's Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku, Vol. 3 event in Sumo Hall on August 26, 2007; Suwama had observed Steiner's match and shortly afterwards came to an agreement with Steiner to team with him and face the team of The Great Muta and Tajiri, at the same show Kojima and TARU won World Tag Team Championship from Taiyo Kea and Toshiaki Kawada. In November 2007, TARU brought in ZODIAC to All Japan, but around the same time they're were dissention between VDM and Suwama who was slowly breaking away from the group.
Koji Igarashi
At the end of 2011, he was moved to the Social division of Konami. There he still produced some games for consoles. In 2011, he was producer for "Otomedius Excellent", a side-scrolling shooting game for the Xbox 360, the Kinect game "Leedmees" and worked to localize the Nintendo DS game "Scribblenauts". Konami's business model had shifted more towards mobile game development. While there, Igarashi had tried to develop mobile games that played more like console games, but was unable to release any titles. Igarashi felt that his experience with console games led him to be unable to make the leap to social games. He left Konami in March 2014.
Just Add Water (company)
In 2013, Hideo Kojima, creator of the "Metal Gear" series, asked if a developer would remake the "Metal Gear Solid" on the Fox Engine. Just Add Water sent a letter to Kojima for permission to work on this project, saying that "we really, really want to do it."
Takafumi Hirao
Hirao started to play rugby since his first year at the secondary school days. He left the basketball club and joined the rugby club when the club members eagerly invited him to join them. He then accepted. 
Hirao attended Doshisha Junior High School and Doshisha University, earning a master in commerce in the latter.
He played for Mitsubishi Motors Kyoto and then, for Kobelco Steelers between 1999 and 2006. With Kobe Steel, Hirao won three Japan Championships in 2000, 2001 and 2004 and two All Japan Championship titles in 2000 and 2001.
Hirao debuted for Japan in 1998, against South Korea in Bangkok, on 18 December. He was also part of the 1999 Rugby World Cup squad, playing only the match against Wales. His last cap was against Italy, in Tokyo, on 4 July 2004.
As of March 2007, Hirao retired from playing due to the continuous concussions he had during play, resulting in diplopia and distortion of visibility.
As of March 2008, he also was manager and coach of the Kobe club SCIX Rugby Club and completed a master's degree in pedagogy and graduated in letters in Kobe Shinwa Women's University.
Hideo Kojima
Before E3 2009, Kojima stated interest in working with a Western developer. This later turned out to be a collaboration between him and Spanish developer MercurySteam to work on "".
ZEN (professional wrestling)
More friction arose in ZEN following Hisakatsu Oya's exit as Gannosuke and Kanemura became upset at Atsushi Onita for booking his non-title match with the Double Champion Masato Tanaka to be the main event instead of Gannosuke and Kanemura's Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship defense against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki on the December 19 show in the "Super Extreme Wrestling War" tour. ZEN competed in three matches at the event with Hideki Hosaka, Hido and Tetsuhiro Kuroda losing to Fuyuki-Gun in the opening match of the event while Gannosuke and Kanemura retained the title against Hayabusa and Shinzaki and Onita pinned Tanaka in the main event. Gannosuke, Kanemura and Hido began separating themselves from Onita due to his selfishness and ego. The following night, on December 20, Onita, Hido and Kuroda lost the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and former ZEN member Hisakatsu Oya. On December 21, Onita, Hido, Hosaka (as The Great Fake), Kuroda and Gladiator lost to the ECW team of Terry Funk, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer and Dudley Boyz. On December 22, a turning point took place in the history of ZEN when Onita, Gannosuke and Kanemura lost to Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Jinsei Shinzaki in a Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Ladder WarGames match when Hayabusa pinned Onita following a Moonsault from the top of the cage, which he had failed to do at the 6th Anniversary Show. After the match, Gannosuke, Kanemura and Hido attacked Onita out of jealousy until a mysterious man in a black jacket attacked them with a steel chair forcing them to retreat and leave ZEN. The man was revealed to be Koji Nakagawa, who had left FMW a week ago due to being upset with his position in the company and joined ZEN as the group's newest member.
Sayama Domain
The Later Hojo Clan was started by Hōjō Sōun and at its zenith during the Sengoku period controlled all of the Kanto region. However, its power attracted the attention of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and when they failed to heed a summon to submit to Hideyoshi at his castle in Osaka, Toyotomi roused a great host numbering 200,000 and laid siege to Odawara Castle. After the fall of the castle, the Hojo lord's father Hōjō Ujimasa and his uncle Hōjō Ujiteru were forced to commit Seppuku while the young lord Hōjō Ujinao was exiled to Mount Kōya. However, the family line did not die there, Hōjō Ujinori a younger brother of Ujimasa developed a deep friendship with Tokugawa Ieyasu when they were both hostages to the Imagawa family. After the disbanding of the Hojo Domain, Ujinori obtained a 10,000 koku stipend from Ieyasu. He bequeathed 4,000 koku to his son Hōjō Ujimori and Ujimori was adopted by Ujinao to symbolically continue the family line of the Later Hojo family.
Hideo Kojima
In 2015, Kojima Productions split from Konami, becoming an independent software company. Kojima announced a collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment for a new action game, "Death Stranding", which is currently in development for PlayStation 4. From 2017 to 2018, he also edited a column for Rolling Stone dedicated to cinema, video games and analysis of the differences and similarities between the two mediums.
Hideo Kojima
Before the release of "Metal Gear Solid 2", Kojima produced the game and anime franchise "Zone of the Enders" in 2001 to moderate success. In 2003, he produced "" for the Game Boy Advance, which players take the role of a young vampire hunter who uses a solar weapon which is charged by a photometric sensor on the game cartridge, forcing them to play in sunlight. Another team inside Konami, in a collaboration with Silicon Knights, began work on "", a GameCube enhanced remake of the first "Metal Gear Solid" with all the gameplay features of "Metal Gear Solid 2" and with cutscenes redirected by director Ryuhei Kitamura. It was released in 2004.
Hideo Kojima
Regarded as an auteur of video games, during his childhood and adolescence he developed a strong passion for action/adventure cinema and literature. He was hired by Konami in 1986 for which he designed and wrote, in 1987, "Metal Gear" for MSX platform, a title that laid the foundations for stealth games and his best known and most appreciated series. The title that consecrated him as one of the most acclaimed video game designers is "Metal Gear Solid", released in 1998 for PlayStation. Other notable video games he directed are visual novels "Snatcher", released in 1988, and "Policenauts", released in 1994.
Namco
Atari Japan, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of Atari, was struggling financially by 1974. General manager Hide Nakajima was left in charge of the company after his boss had quit. Nakajima claims that employees had been stealing money and that he had contributed funds from his personal savings in order to pay creditors and stave off bankruptcy. Though Nakajima wanted to try saving Atari Japan, owner Nolan Bushnell was already struggling to keep the parent company afloat due to undercapitalization and was looking to sell the Japanese subsidiary for some badly needed cash. Sega, at the time a manufacturer of pinball machines, offered to acquire Atari Japan for $50,000. Nakamura put in a bid for $800,000 and shocked others out of competition. The deal was finalized at $500,000 and Bushnell was glad to take it. Debts inherited from Atari Japan would take Nakamura two years to pay off, but the deal had also secured for him an exclusive license to distribute Atari's games in Japan for ten years. Nakamura would follow up by opening video arcades featuring Atari games.
Kazuyuki Hamada
In April 2016 Hamada resigned from the Party for Japanese Kokoro and joined Initiatives from Osaka. Hamada's Tottori constituency was to be merged with the Shimane at-large district to create the Tottori-Shimane at-large district and contesting the new seat as a minor party candidate against Kazuhiko Aoki, the LDP's incumbent member for Shimane, would prove too difficult. Instead Hamada received a nomination to contest the summer 2016 election from the national proportional representation block as an Initiatives from Osaka candidate. However, on Friday 27 May 2016 Hamada caused controversy when he was absent from the House of Councillors, which was debating bills related to relief following the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, in order to attend a party meeting in Osaka for Osaka prefectural representatives. He greeted the meeting by saying "I have come today to say a greeting to the all-star cast in attendance". His attendance was intended to gain support within the party for his national block campaign, and Hamada later explained that he had the party's permission to be absent from the House debate. However, the party's leader in the Osaka Prefectural Assembly, Kazunori Ohashi, said the party was unaware of his intended absence. On the following Monday, party secretary-general announced that the party had removed Hamada as a candidate, saying that his absence from the House in order to progress his re-election campaign was "extremely regrettable". Hamada submitted his resignation to the party on the same day, which was accepted the following day, 1 June 2016.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
In July 2015, series composer Rika Muranaka told "Fragged Nation" in an interview that over 30 commissioned songs for Metal Gear Solid were never used, with Muranaka believing that Kojima has a lack of business sense that played a part in his split from Konami.
Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy
PlayStation Official Magazine UK praised the CGI work and remarked at the locations of scenes within the movie while Destructoid.com claims the movie will be better than its Hollywood counterpart.
Game series' creator Hideo Kojima has stated that he has watched the movie and was moved by the love of the film makers towards "Metal Gear Solid", commenting that it was very well made and he's anxious to watch the next part.
This stands in contrast to Konami's decision to decline the authorization of the sequel on licensing grounds.
Konami
Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, ("aka" KCET, KCE Tokyo, Konami TYO, and Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo Co., Ltd.) is a former subsidiary of Konami Corporation. Konami absorbed KCET along with several of its other subsidiaries in 2005. KCET was a Tokyo-based game developer responsible for many of Konami's most notable video game franchises, including "Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven", "Castlevania", "Dance Dance Revolution", "Gradius" and "Silent Hill".
Raiden (Metal Gear)
Kojima Productions have compared Raiden and Solid Snake as to their experiences and ways of thinking. During the game's climax, Raiden stays handcuffed until his final fight against Solidus Snake; Snake escapes from his handcuffs to follow Revolver Ocelot, emphasizing Raiden's lack of freedom. Hideo Kojima compared Raiden and Snake with movie monsters King Kong and Godzilla, respectively; the former was taken from his home and his nature changed upon meeting Rosemary, whereas the latter will continue fighting against mankind's menaces. Defeating Solidus, Raiden is encouraged by Snake to trust himself and believe in his own choices. This is further addressed by the staff's motivation to make a new sequel to "Metal Gear" without Kojima. Kojima has also likened him with John Rambo from the "Rambo" series as both characters always find themselves taking part in battles despite their desire for a peaceful resolution.
Hideki Okajima
A part of the Japanese people dubbed this pitching form "Looking the Other Way" after a local version of the rock-paper-scissors game. Initially, numerous coaches in Japan, such as Tsuneo Horiuchi, attempted to change Okajima's pitching form. This all stopped, however, when pitching coach Yoshitaka Katori of the Yomiuri Giants accepted his pitching approach. In the past, Okajima was prone to bouts of wildness — even being booed in his home park for his poor control. After the 2005 season, Okajima was traded to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters where he changed his pitching form and reestablished good control.
Hideo Kojima
In early 2001, Kojima released the first details of the sequel to "Metal Gear Solid", "", for the PlayStation 2. The game's highly detailed graphics, physics, and expanded gameplay quickly made it one of the most anticipated games at the time. The game was highly successful and critically acclaimed at release, due to its graphics, gameplay, and storyline, which dealt with myriad philosophical themes as specific as memes, censorship, manipulation, patricide, the inherent flaws of democracy and as grandiose as the nature of reality itself. While "Metal Gear Solid 2" appealed to gamers with the discussion of these, the bewildering maze of dialogue and plot revelation in the final hours of the game was a disappointment for many gamers, who expected the Hollywood-style resolution of its forerunner.
Hideo Kojima
"Newsweek" named Hideo Kojima as one of the top ten people of 2002. In 2008, "Next-Gen" placed him seventh in their list of "Hot 100 Developers 2008."
Hajime Kazumi
On 24 November 2002, Kazumi officially resigned from (Kanchō Shokei Matsui) to join a new organization led by Hatsuo Royama and his instructor Tsuyoshi Hiroshige. Kazumi's reason for leaving the IKO1 was to "pursue true Budo Karate". He later resigned from the newly established organisation to become the leader of an independent group of dojos operating in the Tokyo area.
Konami
In August 2015, "The Nikkei" criticized Konami for its unethical treatment of employees. In June 2017, "The Nikkei" further reported of Konami's continued clashes with Kojima Productions, preventing the studio's application for health insurance, as well as Konami's actions in making it difficult for former employees to get future jobs.
Naoki Maeda (composer)
Maeda composed music for Konami's "Bemani" music game series, beginning in 1998. For the following eight years, he served as the lead sound producer for the "Dance Dance Revolution" arcade series, up until the release of "DDR SuperNOVA". Early editions of the game relied heavily on Maeda's music compositions, and as such, some of his songs are considered favorites by fans. In 2007, Maeda shifted to a sound director role for Nintendo Wii console releases of DDR, while maintaining a sound advisory position for subsequent DDR arcade releases. He left Konami in 2013, and is now working for Capcom.
Snake's Revenge
Konami produced "Snake's Revenge" following the release of the NES version of "Metal Gear", as a sequel produced specifically for the Western market. Hideo Kojima, the designer of the original MSX2 version of "Metal Gear", was not involved in the production of "Snake's Revenge". According to Kojima, one of the developers working on "Snake's Revenge" informed him of the game. He then asked Kojima to develop a true sequel to "Metal Gear". This inspired Kojima to direct his own sequel, "" for the MSX2, which served as the sequel to "Metal Gear" in Japan. "Snake's Revenge" was released in North America and Europe with no corresponding Famicom version. The game has been referred in publications by the alternate title of "Snake's Revenge: Metal Gear II", although this title is never used in the actual game.
Metal Gear
In November 2011, Kojima discussed with "PlayStation Official Magazine (UK)" the series' future commenting an upcoming "Metal Gear Solid 5". Kojima said: "I think we'll probably have to make it [a sequel to "MGS4"] at some point, but what that will be, we have no idea." Kojima stated that when Konami does get around to building the game, he will have less influence than he had on previous iterations in the series. After the mixed fan reactions of the reveal of the rebooted action gameplay focused spin-off "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance", Hideo Kojima reassured fans that an "authentic stealth "Metal Gear Solid"" sequel would be coming in the future.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
"Klonoa: Door to Phantomile" was developed by Namco and directed by Hideo Yoshizawa as his tenth project. Yoshizawa is known for having previously directed "Ninja Gaiden" (1988) for the Nintendo Entertainment System"." The idea for "Door to Phantomile" originated when Yoshizawa wanted to create a more cinematic game following his dissatisfaction with other developers not prioritizing story. The original concept was more serious and featured robots and an "ancient ruins" motif. The main character was a robot that would defeat enemies with spinning iron balls. This idea was dropped for a dreams motif and a more comical story. Yoshizawa established the dream concept because he was interested in exploring the idea of where dreams go when they are forgotten. He envisioned a world where these dreams could be collected and felt players could relate the setting to their own dreams and experiences. Namco felt that the game would appeal to a wide audience, thinking the adventure-like aspects would be enjoyed by children and the emotional plot twists would be appreciated by adults. Lead designer Tsuyoshi Kobayashi conceptualized the fast-paced action gameplay. Originally the game used three buttons, but was reduced to two for quicker input and faster play.
Hideo Itami
Kenta's first involvement in a championship situation came when Naomichi Marufuji was forced to vacate the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship after suffering a knee injury; Kenta entered into the tournament held to determine a new champion. He advanced to the finals by defeating Kotaro Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi before losing to Yoshinobu Kanemaru on the "Navigation with Breeze Tour". Following his relative success in the tournament, Kenta had an increase in his popularity, and he joined his mentor, Kenta Kobashi, in the faction Burning.
Rieko Kodama
Kodama soon became a producer at Sega's Overworks division and led the development of "Skies of Arcadia," a critically acclaimed RPG released for the Dreamcast in 2000. As her first 3D RPG, Kodama felt her freedom of expression had expanded. The project began because her team wanted to create a completely 3D RPG for the Sega Saturn. The project was moved to the Dreamcast when the content became too large for the Saturn to process. According to Kodama, a defining element during development was to not rely on advanced graphics and particularly the CGI movies that were popular in games at the time, which Kodama felt took control away from the player. Kodama has stated that "Skies of Arcadia" along with the "Phantasy Star" series were her favorite projects she worked on.
Hideo Fukuyama
Released from his ride with TCM midway through the 2003 season, Fukuyama returned to his native Japan, where he resumed racing in the Super GT series, as well as becoming an analyst for Japanese television broadcasts of NASCAR.
Haruna Kojima
In AKB48's general election for 2016, under the name , Kojima finished 16th with 40,071 votes. During the results event on June 18, 2016, she announced that she would be leaving from the group. She said that she had thought about doing it two years ago, but the timing wasn't right especially given the handshake incident in 2014. She said that she was 28 and wanted to take the next step to become an adult woman. In 2017, she was announced as the center performer for AKB48's 47th single "Shoot Sign", released in March 2017. It marked her first center performance since "Green Flash" two years ago, and her third center performance on an AKB48 single overall. After her graduation concert "" on February 21-22, 2017, she performed at the AKB48 theatre for the last time, on her birthday, on April 19, 2017.
Hideo Itami
On January 27, 2014, Kenta, with Noah's blessing, entered WWE's Performance Center in Orlando, Florida for a tryout. In a press release, Kenta claimed that he was not after a WWE contract, but only wanted to fulfill a dream and take part in a WWE workout. On June 27, Tokyo Sports reported that Kenta had signed with WWE. His signing was officially announced during an in-ring segment on July 12 in Osaka. Kobayashi relocated to Orlando to resume training at the Performance Center, while also working for WWE's developmental territory NXT.
Haruo Nakajima
He was considered by many to be the best suit actor in the long history of the Godzilla franchise. At the time, Toho's visual effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya considered him completely invaluable, and he was employed to essay the roles of most of the "kaiju" (Japanese monsters) during his career as a suit actor. After 24 years, he retired from suit acting upon completion of "Godzilla vs. Gigan" (1972), when the studio cycled him out of their contract actor system, after it split into several subsidiaries in 1970. He stayed employed by Toho for several years, and was reportedly transferred to a job at its bowling alley, located on the now defunct studio lot.
P.T. (video game)
Kojima Productions used their game engine, the Fox Engine, to develop "P.T." Hideo Kojima's intention when creating "P.T." was to scare people in a unique way, as well as to deliver an interactive teaser experience instead of releasing trailers and screenshots of "Silent Hills".
Hideo Kojima
Afterwards, Kojima designed and released "" for the PlayStation 2. Unlike the previous games in the series, which took place in the near future and focused on indoor locations, the game is set in a Soviet jungle during the height of the Cold War in 1964, and features wilderness survival, camouflage, and "James Bond" styled espionage. The North American version was released on November 17, 2004, with the Japanese counterpart following on December 16. The European version was released on March 4, 2005. Critical response to the game was highly favorable. Kojima has said that his mother played it, "It took her an entire year to complete "Metal Gear Solid 3". She would get her friends to help her. When she defeated The End, [a character the player faces off during the game] she called me up and said: 'It is finished'."
Koji Nakagawa
After FMW folded down in 2002, Nakagawa mainly competed in WMF alternating between his real name and Goemon character but also began competing in various independent promotions including Dramatic Dream Team (DDT), Ice Ribbon, Pro Wrestling Zero1, 666 and Fuyuki Army Promotion. In the fall of 2003, Goemon and Onryo participated in a tournament for the new NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship, in which they lost to eventual winners Ikuto Hidaka and Dick Togo in the semi-final round. Nakagawa was one of the founding members of the Apache Army group in 2003 and the group consisted of various FMW alumni and Japanese independent wrestlers. The group evolved to become a promotion in 2004. After leaving WMF in 2007, Nakagawa became a freelancer on the independent circuit and became less active after 2010.
Hideo Kojima
On December 16, 2015, Kojima announced that Kojima Productions would be re-established as an independent studio, partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment, and that his first game would be console exclusive to the PlayStation 4. At E3 2016 in Los Angeles, Kojima personally announced the game's title as "Death Stranding" in a trailer. The trailer showed actor and inspiration for the main character Norman Reedus, whom Kojima had previously worked with in the canceled "Silent Hills".
Dreamcast
Due to long-standing disagreements with Sega of Japan, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske became less interested in his position. On July 16, 1996, Sega announced that Shoichiro Irimajiri had been appointed chairman and CEO of Sega of America, while Kalinske would be leaving Sega after September 30 of that year. Sega also announced that Sega Enterprises cofounder David Rosen and Sega of Japan CEO Hayao Nakayama had resigned from their positions as chairman and co-chairman of Sega of America, though both men remained with the company. Bernie Stolar, a former executive at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, was named Sega of America's executive vice president in charge of product development and third-party relations. Stolar did not support the Saturn due to his belief that the hardware was poorly designed and publicly announced at E3 1997 that "The Saturn is not our future." After the launch of the Nintendo 64, sales of the Saturn and Sega's 32-bit software were sharply reduced. As of August 1997, Sony controlled 47 percent of the console market, Nintendo controlled 40 percent, and Sega controlled only 12 percent. Neither price cuts nor high-profile games were proving helpful to the Saturn's success. Due to the Saturn's poor performance in North America, Sega of America laid off 60 of its 200 employees in the fall of 1997. 
As a result of the company's deteriorating financial situation, Nakayama resigned as president of Sega in January 1998 in favor of Irimajiri. Stolar would subsequently accede to become CEO and president of Sega of America. Following five years of generally declining profits, in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998, Sega suffered its first parent and consolidated financial losses since its 1988 listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Due to a 54.8% decline in consumer product sales (including a 75.4% decline overseas), the company reported a consolidated net loss of ¥35.6 billion (US$269.8 million). Shortly before announcing its financial losses, Sega revealed that it was discontinuing the Saturn in North America, with the goal of preparing for the launch of its successor. This decision effectively left the Western market without Sega games for over one year. Rumors about the upcoming Dreamcast—spread mainly by Sega itself—leaked to the public before the last Saturn games were released.
Zone of the Enders
Since 2008, "Zone of the Enders 3" has been in concept development by Hideo Kojima, but was kept away from game development until all the big titles were completed. On May 25, 2012, Kojima confirmed that work on the next installment in the "Zone of the Enders" series had begun. However, the project was cancelled after Kojima Productions acknowledged issues within the HD Collection.
Sega
After Okawa's death, Hideki Sato became president of Sega. Sato, a 30-year veteran of Sega, had previously developed Sega's video game consoles. Because of poor sales in 2002, Sega was forced to cut its profit forecast by 90% for 2003. As a result, Sega began to look at opportunities for a merger to fix its financial situation. In 2003, Sega began talks with Sammy Corporation and Namco. Sato stated that he would select the partner that fit the business best. Sega made an announcement on February 13, 2003, of its decision to merge with Sammy. However, as late as April 17 of the same year, Sega was still in talks with Namco, which was attempting to overturn the merger and went public with its offer to be acquired. Sega's consideration of Namco's offer upset executives of Sammy. However, the day after Sega announced it was no longer planning to merge with Sammy, Namco withdrew its offer. Though Namco expressed that it would be willing to work with Sega on a future deal, Sega expressed it was not interested. Due to the failure to complete a merger, Sato was forced to step down. In 2003, he and COO Tetsu Kamaya announced they were stepping down from their roles, with Sato being replaced by Hisao Oguchi, the head of Hitmaker.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
In an interview with VG247, Kojima expressed concerns over whether or not "Ground Zeroes" would be released. He claimed that his aim was to target taboos and mature themes, which he considered to be "quite risky", adding that his roles as creator and producer were in conflict with one another; as creator, Kojima wanted to take the risk of exploring themes that might alienate audiences, but as producer, he had to be able to tone down the content in order to sell as many copies of the game as possible. Ultimately, the role of creator won out, and Kojima described his approach as "prioritizing creativity over sales".
At the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2012, a teaser trailer for a game known as "The Phantom Pain" was shown, credited to a new Swedish developer known as Moby Dick Studio, and was described as being "100% gameplay". Allegedly led by Joakim Mogren, the studio's mission statement read that it aimed to "deliver an uncompromising, exciting, and touching game experience to people all around the globe." After the presentation, commentators speculated that "The Phantom Pain" was actually a "Metal Gear" game, noting the protagonist's resemblance to Big Boss, graphics similar to those produced by the Fox Engine, the quote "V has come to" at the end of the trailer, and that the title "Metal Gear Solid V" fits in the negative space and indentations of the game's logo when using the same font. The name "Joakim" was an anagram of "Kojima", the domain name for the studio's website had only been registered about two weeks prior to the announcement, and that several people wearing Moby Dick Studio shirts were sitting in a VIP area intended for Konami staff. Hideo Kojima stated he was impressed by the trailer and how Mogren was inspired by "Metal Gear".
Hideo Kojima
Kojima was born the youngest of three children in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. The family moved to Osaka when he was about four years old. The family watched movies every night and he "wasn't allowed to go to bed till the film had finished".
Koji Kondo
Kondo was the third person hired by Nintendo to create music and sound effects for their games, joining Hirokazu Tanaka and Yukio Kaneoka. However, he was the first at Nintendo to actually specialize in musical composition. The first game he worked on was the arcade game "Punch-Out!!", although it was before he had officially joined Nintendo. Despite creating mostly jingles and sound effects, he was able to overcome the challenges of early arcade sound hardware. As the Famicom had become highly popular in Japan, Kondo was assigned to compose music for the console's subsequent games at Nintendo's new development team, Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD). Kondo also wrote an instruction manual on how to program Japanese popular music into the Famicom using the peripheral "Family BASIC". To conclude his first year at Nintendo, he created the music to "Devil World" alongside Akito Nakatsuka. In 1985, Nintendo started marketing the Famicom abroad under the name the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to capitalize on the 1983 video game crash that devastated Atari, Inc. He composed the music for the hit releases "Super Mario Bros." (1985) and "The Legend of Zelda" (1986), which helped the system to sell 60 million copies in total and established some of the most well-known melodies in the video game industry.
Voodoo Murders
On January 3, 2008, TARU and Kojima lost the Tag Titles to Keiji Mutoh and Joe Doering, at the same show, Suwama finally broke away from Voodoo Murders and returned the All Japan Seikigun. On March 1, 2008, TARU took on Suwama but came up short, while Kojima failed to win the Triple Crown from Kensuke Sasaki. After Sumo Hall, the group entered a slump as Kojima took time off due to an injury, around the same time, Voodoo Murders acquired Silver King who had just won the World Junior Heavyweight Championship and Shawn Daivari who became Al Daivari but neither lasted long as Silver King dropped the Jr. Title to Ryuji Hijikata and both left by the summer. Things continued to get worse as Kojima returned from injury and decided not to return to the Voodoo Murders and from there would form his own stable: F4 with KAI and Hiroshi Yamato and in the fall, Shuji Kondo decided to leave the group and return to the All Japan Seikigun. Despite these setbacks, TARU would rebuild. In the fall of 2008, to the shock of All Japan, TARU was able recruit All Japan's gaijin ace: Joe Doering and veteran wrestler: Nobukazu Hirai. After joining, Doering would be paired with ZODIAC as the two formed the tag team: Voodoo Towers, while Hirai was renamed: Hate.
Hideaki Kitajima
Kitajima was born in Narashino on May 23, 1978. After graduating from high school, he joined Kashiwa Reysol in 1997. In 1999, he played many matches and the club won J.League Cup. The club also won the 3rd place 1999 and 2000 J1 League. However his opportunity to play decreased, he moved to Shimizu S-Pulse in 2003. He returned to Kashiwa Reysol in 2006. In 2011, the club won the champions 2011 J1 League. He moved to Roasso Kumamoto in June 2012. He retired end of 2013 season.
Fox Engine
The Fox Engine is a proprietary cross-platform, cross-generational game engine built by Kojima Productions for use in Konami games. The engine's development began after the completion of 2008's "", with the goal of making the "best engine in the world." The first title to use the "Fox Engine" was "Pro Evolution Soccer 2014".
Takashi Kojima
Kojima was born in Shiga Prefecture on August 4, 1973. After dropped out from Kindai University, he joined newly was promoted to J1 League club, Kashiwa Reysol in June 1995. However he could hardly play in the match. In 1999, he moved to Vissel Kobe. He played 12 matches in 2 seasons and he retired end of 2000 season.
Hideo Kojima
Kojima was at E3 2010 to show off his team's latest project, "". He was also seen in Nintendo's 3DS interview video, where he stated he was interested in making a "Metal Gear Solid" game for the 3DS and wondered what it would be like in 3D. This game ended up being a remake of "Metal Gear Solid 3" titled "". In late 2011, "Metal Gear Solid: Rising" was renamed "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance" with PlatinumGames being involved in developing it alongside Kojima Productions. Nevertheless, Kojima is the game's executive producer and showed interest in working in the game's demo. Kojima was satisfied with the final product and expressed the possibility of a sequel if Platinum were to develop it.
Konami
The company was founded on March 21, 1969 and was officially incorporated under the name on March 19, 1973. The company's founder and current chairman, Kagemasa Kozuki, previously ran a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka before transforming the business into a manufacturer of amusement machines for video arcades. Their first coin-operated video game was released in 1978, and they began exporting products to the United States the following year.
Alfonso Soriano
Soriano disliked the intense Japanese practice schedule, and the Carp denied him a salary increase from $45,000 to $180,000 per year. Like Hideo Nomo and Hideki Irabu, who had previously left Japan to play in the United States, Soriano hired Don Nomura to help his situation. After first attempting to void Soriano's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) contract by unsuccessfully arguing that the player was legally a minor when he signed it, Nomura advised him, like Nomo, to retire from NPB and pursue a career in MLB. This prompted Carp executives to file an injunction against Soriano, and to send letters to MLB teams demanding that they cease all negotiations with him. After the Nomo case, NPB officials had amended the Working Agreement without consulting any MLB officials in an attempt to prevent the situation from recurring. Since MLB had not agreed to any changes to the agreement, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig declared that MLB would recognize Soriano as a free agent on July 13, 1998 and the Carp backed down.
Keiji Inafune
On October 29, 2010, Inafune announced on his blog that he would be leaving Capcom with the intention of "starting his life over". He had been with the company for 23 years. In an interview with 4Gamer he stated "The reason why I'm quitting is basically because I think that the game industry itself must change the way it goes about making games,". He cited that job security creates complacency among staff, and big budgets with very large staff, as problems with current Japanese game companies.
Hideo Kojima
Kojima began development on a 3D sequel to "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake" in 1994. A gameplay demo of "Metal Gear Solid" for the PlayStation was first revealed to the public at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show, and was later shown at E3 1997 as a short video. With the release of "Metal Gear Solid" in , Kojima became an international celebrity among the video game media. "Metal Gear Solid" was the first in the "Metal Gear" series to use 3D graphics and voice acting, which gave a more cinematic experience to the game. "Metal Gear Solid" was highly regarded for its well-designed gameplay and for its characters and storyline, which featured themes of nuclear proliferation and genetic engineering.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Sakurai originally stated that he did not want to emphasize Japan-only characters. However, reflecting upon Marth and Roy's inclusion in "Melee", which led to the international release of the "Fire Emblem" series, he became more interested in characters exclusive to Japan-only releases. Sakurai said that third-party characters would amount to two at the most, aside from Snake. The inclusion of Konami-created character Solid Snake may seem to conflict with the "Super Smash Bros." paradigm—to only include characters from games made by Nintendo and its second parties—but Sakurai said that "Metal Gear" creator Hideo Kojima "practically begged" for Snake to be included in "Super Smash Bros. Melee", which did not happen since the game was too far into development. This in turn led to his appearance in the following game instead. Similarly, the now-playable Lucas from "Mother 3" was intended to be used in "Melee", but was left out due to the delay of "Mother 3".
Hiroshi Yamauchi
On May 24, 2002, Yamauchi stepped down as president of Nintendo and was succeeded by the head of Nintendo’s Corporate Planning Division, Satoru Iwata. Yamauchi subsequently became the chairman of Nintendo’s board of directors. He finally left the board on June 29, 2005, due to his age, and because he felt that he was leaving the company in good hands. Yamauchi also refused to accept his retirement pension, which was reported to be around $9 to $14 million, feeling that Nintendo could put it to better use. He was also Nintendo’s largest shareholder despite stepping down. As of 2008 he retained a 10% share in Nintendo. He was the 12th richest man in Japan due to his shares in Nintendo since its success with the Wii and Nintendo DS consoles. He donated the majority of the 7.5 billion yen used to build a new cancer treatment center in Kyoto. He also founded a museum in Kyoto called Shigureden.
Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes
Pitcher Hideo Nomo starred for the Buffaloes from 1990–1994 before he exercised a loophole in his contract and "retired," allowing him to sign with MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers. The subsequent wave of players moving to Major League Baseball has become a fixture of Japanese professional baseball.
Captain New Japan
On 25 September at Destruction in Kobe, upon being denied a spot in Hunter Club, Captain New Japan turned on Yoshitatsu and defected to Bullet Club. The following day, Hirasawa was given the new ring name "Bone Soldier". He made his debut under the name on 8 October. The following month, Bone Soldier entered the 2016 World Tag League, teaming with Bullet Club stablemate Bad Luck Fale. The two lost all seven of their matches in the tournament, with Bone Soldier being pinned by his rival Yoshitatsu in their final match on 8 December. Bone Soldier's performance in the tournament led to Bullet Club leader Kenny Omega dubbing him an "intergalactic disaster". On March 1, 2017, Hirasawa's profile was removed from NJPW's website, confirming his departure from the company. According to Dave Meltzer, he was fired because of gambling issues.
Diamond Ring (professional wrestling)
They featured storylines with the Diamond Ring stable with the Voodoo Murders.
On 5 October 2013 Nakajima received an opportunity for the GHC Heavyweight Championship and he lost to the defending champion Kenta.
On September 9 Kento Miyahara announced that he was officially breaking off his affiliation with Diamond Ring and becoming a freelancer.
On 24 November 2013 the Voodoo Murders did their last match on Diamond Ring and left the promotion and jumped to Pro Wrestling Zero1.
On February 11, 2014, Sasaki suffered his first loss to Katsuhiko Nakajima in the main event of a Diamond Ring event, later that day Satoshi Kajiwara made his last match on the promotion and retired.Two days later, Sasaki held a press conference to announce his retirement from professional wrestling.
Following Sasaki's retirement, Diamond Ring was left with only one remaining wrestler, Katsuhiko Nakajima, with Satoshi Kajiwara resigning and Mitsuhiro Kitamiya joining Pro Wrestling Noah.
On March 09 they held their last show named Diamond Ring Hometown Match and after that night they closed the promotion but the stable it was represented by Nakajima until 2015 when Nakajima joined to Pro Wrestling Noah he started to no longer represent the group.
Death Stranding
Death Stranding is an upcoming action game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4. It is the first game from director Hideo Kojima and his reformed development studio after their disbandment from Konami in 2015. The game was announced at E3 2016 and has no set release date.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
In March 2015, Konami announced plans for a corporate restructuring that saw them part ways with Hideo Kojima and his development studio Kojima Productions. As part of the separation, Kojima's name was removed from the game cover, all of its associated paraphernalia and future releases of "Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes" and "Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection". A Konami spokesperson stated that Kojima would still be involved with Konami and the "Metal Gear" franchise, and despite the dispute, the company expressed confidence that the game would be declared Game of the Year.
Hideo Nomo
Nomo had become one of the most popular baseball players in Japan but after the 1994 season, Nomo got into a contract dispute with team management. The Buffaloes rebuffed Nomo's demands to have a contract agent and multi-year contract. Because he was drafted by Kintetsu, the Buffaloes retained exclusive rights to Nomo; however, Nomo's agent, Don Nomura, found a loophole in the Japanese Uniform Players Contract to enable him to become a free agent. The "voluntary retirement clause" allowed a player who retired to play for whomever he wished after returning to active status. This led to him heading to the U.S., where in February 1995, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him.
Hayao Nakayama
Nakayama is also one of the main reasons why Sega pulled out of the home console market. Sega's release of the 32X, turning down Sony's offer to work with Sega to make a new console instead of releasing the Sega Saturn, and the surprise launch of the Sega Saturn were all his decisions. Nakayama based his decisions for Sega of America off of how Sega consoles were doing in Japan. The reason why the Sega Genesis was successful against the Nintendo Entertainment System was because Nakayama let Tom Kalinske do what he needed to do to obtain the public's interest in the Genesis. Nakayama stepped down from CEO of Sega of Japan before the launch of the Dreamcast, but by the time Sega could fix the damage done by Nakayama, it was too late. Sega was losing money fast. In order to avoid bankruptcy, they pulled out of the console market and became a third party developer for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
Yukio Hatoyama
On 2 June 2010, Hatoyama announced his resignation as Prime Minister before a meeting of the Japanese Democratic Party. He cited breaking a campaign promise to close an American military base on the island of Okinawa as the main reason for the move. On 28 May 2010, soon after and because of increased tensions from the sinking of a South Korean navy ship allegedly by North Korea, Hatoyama had made a deal with U.S. President Barack Obama to retain the base for security reasons, but the deal was unpopular in Japan. He also mentioned money scandals involving a top party leader, Ichirō Ozawa, who resigned as well, in his decision to step down. Hatoyama had been pressed to leave by members of his party after doing poorly in polls in anticipation of an upper house election in July 2010.
Parodius
Only a few of the games were released outside Japan: "Parodius Da! －Shinwa kara Owarai e－" and "Gokujō Parodius!" were released in Europe (as "Parodius" and "Fantastic Journey" respectively), but none of the games were released in the United States. Konami general manager Nagata Akihiki stated that the Parodius games are too specific to the Japanese market to be released worldwide.
Hideo Kojima
On October 12, 2017, Kojima received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brasil Game Show.
Konami
Later that year, Konami's legal department barred Hideo Kojima from accepting "Best Action-Adventure" for his work on "" at The Game Awards 2015. When announced during the event, the audience booed in disapproval of Konami's actions. Host Geoff Keighley expressed his disappointment in Konami's actions. After actor Kiefer Sutherland accepted the award in Kojima's stead, a choir played "Quiet's Theme" from "The Phantom Pain" as tribute to the absent Kojima. Kojima left Konami several days afterwards, re-opening Kojima Productions as an independent company.
Hayao Nakayama
In 1990, Nakayama went to Hawaii to find Tom Kalinske, who had recently left Matchbox. He offered Kalinske the position as president and CEO of SOA [Sega of America]. It was Kalinske's daughter who made him decide to go to Japan. In Japan, they went to a geisha bar and then to Sega of Japan's R&D department. Here, he was shown the Game Gear and the Mega Drive. This convinced him to work at SOA.
Kojima Productions
On March 16, 2015, Konami announced that it had restructured its video game development operations to "[shift] our production structure to a headquarters-controlled system, in order to establish a steadfast operating base capable of responding to the rapid market changes that surround our digital entertainment business." The same day, references to Kojima and Kojima Productions were stripped from promotional material and websites relating to the "Metal Gear" series, Kojima's Los Angeles studio was renamed Konami Los Angeles Studio, a new "Metal Gear Solid" Twitter account without a reference to Kojima in its username was established, and the Kojima Productions website began to redirect to the "Metal Gear Solid" website instead. That day, Kojima posted a photo on his personal Twitter account captioned "heading off", and a Konami filing stated that as of April 1, 2015, he would no longer be among Konami's executive officers. These actions led to speculation that Kojima was planning on leaving the company after the release of "The Phantom Pain", which he has described as being a conclusion of the "Metal Gear" series.
Kojima Productions
On March 19, an anonymous employee reported to GameSpot that these changes were a result of conflicts between Kojima and Konami. The employee stated that Kojima and his staff were now being treated as contracted workers rather than employees, Konami had blocked access to their corporate e-mail and phone systems (thus restricting their communications), and that Kojima and the studio's senior staff planned to leave Konami in December 2015 following the conclusion of their contracts and the release of "The Phantom Pain". A Konami spokesperson denied that Kojima was leaving the company, and stated that he would still be involved with Konami and the "Metal Gear" franchise. On March 20, Konami made a public statement on its website, stating that Kojima would be staying with the company through at least the completion of "The Phantom Pain", and that it was recruiting new staff to lead the development of future "Metal Gear" games. Kojima himself confirmed in a statement that he was still "100% involved" in the completion of "The Phantom Pain", and was "determined to make it the greatest game I've directed to date." Voice actress Donna Burke, who had been involved in the game, claimed in a posting on Twitter that Kojima had actually been fired, although Konami denied these claims and Burke revoked her statement.
Hiroshi Soejima
After retirement, Soejima started coaching career at Kashima Antlers (former "Sumitomo Metal") in 1992. He moved to Gamba Osaka in 1996. In 1998, he returned to Cerezo Osaka (former "Yanmar Diesel") and became a manager in 2000. He was sacked in August 2001. He managed his local club Sagan Tosu in 2002 and Vissel Kobe in 2003. In 2005, he returned to Cerezo Osaka and managed youth team until 2008. He moved to Kataller Toyama and became a coach. In 2010, he moved to Thespa Kusatsu and managed until 2012. In 2015, he moved to Thailand and became a manager Ayutthaya.
Goodbye Hayabusa II: Haunted House
On May 31, FMW Commissioner Kodo Fuyuki cut an in-ring segment with FMW President Shoichi Arai in which Fuyuki declared war on Masato Tanaka and announced that if Tanaka got pinned, he would be forced to leave FMW. Ricky Fuji interrupted him to protest on it but he was attacked by Fuyuki and Arai, which led to a match between Fuji and Arai at Haunted House. On June 15, Eiji Ezaki's retirement of "Hayabusa" was incorporated into a storyline in which Fuyuki announced that Ezaki would not be allowed to compete as Hayabusa after August 25. Tanaka joined forces with Hayabusa to feud with Team No Respect throughout the summer of 1999.
Hideo Kojima
His next project was the graphic adventure game "Snatcher", released for the NEC PC-8801 and MSX2 computer platforms in Japan in . The game, influenced by cyberpunk science fiction works such as "Akira", "Blade Runner", "The Terminator", and "Bubblegum Crisis", is set in a post-apocalyptic world and centers around an amnesiac detective who faces a race of cyborgs (the titular Snatchers) that kill their victims, copy their likeness and assume their place in society. While Kojima and his team wrote the entire story of the game, they were forced to leave out the final act of the game due to time constraints. The game was highly regarded at the time for pushing the boundaries of video game storytelling, cinematic cut scenes, and mature content, and was praised for its graphics, soundtrack, high quality writing comparable to a novel, voice acting comparable to a film or radio drama, post-apocalyptic setting, light gun shooter segments, and in-game computer database with optional documents that flesh out the game world. The Sega CD version of "Snatcher" was for a long time the only major visual novel game to be released in America. However, partly due to a Teen rating limiting its accessibility, it only sold a "couple of thousand units", according to Jeremy Blaustein, a member of "Snatcher"s localization team.
Hideo Kojima
All of his subsequent projects after "Metal Gear 2" were produced primarily for disc-based media, allowing for the inclusion of voice acting in his games. He remade "Snatcher" in for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM. An English localization of the game was produced for the Sega Mega-CD in North America and Europe in . Kojima was not directly involved in the Sega CD version nor the subsequent PlayStation and Saturn ports released in Japan in .
Nobuyuki Kojima
At the end of 1998, Bellmare released their main players including Kojima as well as Wagner Lopes, Hong Myung-bo, Kazuaki Tasaka and Yoshihiro Natsuka due to their financial problems. Kojima moved to Avispa Fukuoka. He further moved to Thespa Kusatsu in 2002 that played in the Gunma Prefectural League division 2. As a player - assistant coach, he was instrumental in the team's promotion to the Japan Football League, then J2 League. His last competitive game was against Consadole Sapporo on December 3, 2005 and he announced his retirement from the game in January 2006.
Hideo Kojima
At that time Kojima produced "Boktai"s sequel, "" for the Game Boy Advance. Released in summer 2004, it makes more extensive use of the cartridge's sunlight sensor and allows players to combine various new solar weapons. Also released was "Metal Gear Acid" for the PlayStation Portable handheld. A turn-based game, it is less action-oriented than the other "Metal Gear" games and focuses more on strategy. It was released in Japan on December 16, 2004. Its sequel, "Metal Gear Acid 2", was released on March 21, 2006.
Hideo Kojima
In , Kojima released "Policenauts", a film noir-science fiction-themed adventure game set in a space colony, for the NEC PC-9821. Kojima oversaw the subsequent ports released for the 3DO in ; and the PlayStation and Saturn in , which all featured animated cutscenes that were not in the PC-98 release. Despite announcements for an English release in 1996, problems with synching the English dialogue with the cut-scenes stopped its production. An unofficial English translation patch was released on August 24, 2009, to coincide with Kojima's 46th birthday. From 1997 to 1999, he developed the "Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series", a trilogy of visual novel adventure games.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Despite having thought out stories and scenarios for the game, Kojima Productions were finding it difficult to design the game around the cutting concept. The project was quietly cancelled in late 2010, and whilst Kojima had considered moving the project to developers abroad, he felt that a Japanese developer would be more suited to produce a ninja action game. In early 2011, Kojima met PlatinumGames' Atsushi Inaba who asked him about the state of "Metal Gear Solid: Rising" and Kojima later requested them to work in the game. This new version, titled "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance", was first revealed via a trailer shown at the Spike Video Game Awards on December 10, 2011. PlatinumGames requested a change of setting in order to have less restrictions in the creation of the game. Shortly after starting development, PlatinumGames discarded the stealth element, with Kojima noting that the original staff did not find it fit with high speed action. However, they were incorporated as Inaba found the original game system too "dull." Artist Yoji Shinkawa worked in the game but only to design Raiden, while freelancer artist Kenichirou Yoshimura is the character designer whose objective is making his work fit with Shinkawa's style.
Hiroki Kuroda
Kuroda obtained free agency on May 31, 2006, and announced that he was willing to hear offers from other teams. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp had a staunch policy against free agency because it would lead to higher salaries which the team would not be able to provide due to lack of financial structure. The team's management traditionally never attempted to re-negotiate with players of their own team who declared free agency (for example, the team ignored outfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto's offers to reconsider staying on the team because he had already declared free agency). Numerous teams showed interest in Kuroda, including the Seibu Lions and Hanshin Tigers, who had lost their key starters Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kei Igawa to the posting system. The well-financed Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks aggressively pursued Kuroda, while the Chunichi Dragons and Yomiuri Giants, who had been in pursuit of free agent Michihiro Ogasawara, were also thought to have interest.
Hideo Kojima
In 2005, Kojima founded Kojima Productions, a software house controlled by Konami, and by 2011 he rose as vice president of Konami Digital Entertainment.
Konami
The company originated in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kōzuki, who remains the company's chairman. The name "Konami" (; ) is a portmanteau of the names Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako.
Fox Engine
A demo of the engine was shown at Konami's conference at E3 2011. Taking place in a jungle environment, the demo showed off the engine's visual capabilities and featured a young man running around the area, as well as a horse and a dog. The tech-demo was not showcasing a game to be released; instead, it showed a test area for the development of the engine, based on assets created for "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain". Kojima Productions planned to use the engine for all future titles, most prominently in "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain", which was revealed by Hideo Kojima, the series creator at a special 25th anniversary of the series event in Tokyo.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
"Metal Gear Solid 4" started development due to fan demand. Series creator Hideo Kojima had previously directed the prequel "" which was meant to end the series. However, people's demand to have a sequel to "" and clear the mysteries Kojima wanted to leave to the players' interpretations resulted in the making of "Metal Gear Solid 4". Kojima announced that he would be retiring as director of the "Metal Gear" series after "", and would leave his position open to another person for "Metal Gear Solid 4". As a joke, the new director was announced as "Alan Smithee", but in "R", a 400-page book bundled with "Metal Gear Solid 3"s Japanese "Premium Package", the director was revealed to be Shuyo Murata, co-writer of "MGS3" and director of "". He also contributed easter eggs to "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty" and "Metal Gear: Ghost Babel". However, it was announced that Kojima would be co-directing the game with Murata after substantial negative fan reaction, including death threats.
Hideo Kojima
He wanted to be an artist, filmmaker, or illustrator, but felt discouraged by the pressure of social norms favoring a stable, salaried job over creative pursuits, and also because his uncle was an artist who struggled to make a living. The death of Kojima's father, which left the entire family poorer, was another reason. As a young adult, he began studying economics while writing short stories in his spare time; he submitted some of these to magazines but was not able to get anything published. He cites that his stories were often 400 pages long while most magazines wanted their short stories to be around 100 pages. Eventually, he shifted his creative focus to making films with a friend who had an 8mm camera.
List of Metal Gear media
"Metal Gear" is a stealth action video game series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The series debuted in Japan on July 12, 1987 with "Metal Gear" and is one of Konami's best-selling franchises, with over 26.5 million units sold. The games take place in a semi-fictional universe with stories that involve a special forces agent (Solid Snake in most games) who is forced to destroy the latest incarnation of the superweapon Metal Gear, as well as having to rescue various hostages and neutralize certain renegade units in the process. "Metal Gear" titles have been released on numerous video game consoles, handheld game consoles, and personal computer platforms. Related novels, comics, and other dramatizations have also been released. A few of the series' main characters have also appeared in other Konami games.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Hideo Kojima mentioned in January 2012 that depending on the game's popularity, the staff would make a franchise based on it. He has viewed the relationship between Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames as very positive and suggested that a sequel to "Metal Gear Rising" may be possible in the near future. However, Kojima would only approve of a sequel if PlatinumGames were to develop it, stating that "no one else could [do] it". Following the game's release Kojima was impressed with PlatinumGames' work in the game stating the franchise had a "lot of hugely, insanely critical fans" who would be harsh on reflecting issues. As the original project from the game was telling Raiden's life before "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" Kojima would like the game to be developed although he thought that PlatinumGames would have problems with it as a result of being an inter-sequel. As a result, he is unable to confirm such story could be developed in the future.
Kenta Kobashi
On December 9, 2012, Kobashi attended Noah's Ryōgoku Kokugikan event and during an in-ring interview, revealed he planned to retire in a Noah ring in 2013. Noah and Kobashi seemingly came to an agreement to let him retire as opposed to forcing him to leave the promotion. Despite this change in plans, Noah confirmed on December 19 that Akiyama, Shiozaki, Suzuki, Kanemaru and Aoki all would be leaving the promotion after December 24. On January 23, 2013, Kobashi announced that his retirement match would take place on at Nippon Budokan. Kobashi's retirement event, "Final Burning in Budokan" took place on May 11. His retirement ceremony was held after the second match on the show and was attended by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, legendary NTV announcers Akira Fukuzawa and Kazuo Tokumitsu, former colleagues Akira Taue, Hiroshi Hase, Masahiro Chono, Mitsuo Momota, Toshiaki Kawada, and Stan Hansen via video message, along with many others. In the main event, Kobashi teamed with Jun Akiyama, Keiji Mutoh, and Kensuke Sasaki in an eight-man tag team match, where they defeated his protégés Go Shiozaki, Kenta, Maybach Taniguchi, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, with Kobashi pinning Kanemaru with a moonsault for the final win of his career. The event at Nippon Budokan was attended by 17,000 fans and aired live across Japan on the television network BS Sky! and in movie theaters.
Koji Igarashi
Right after graduating from college, Igarashi began working at Konami. His first project was working as a programmer for a simulation game for the Educational Software department. The game would be a business simulation, and the team took inspiration from the "Fire Emblem" series, but after 12 months the game was cancelled. He moved to the Consumer division and worked on enemy programming for the PC Engine version of "Detana!! Twinbee". He worked as a programmer and was tasked with writing the story for "Tokimeki Memorial", a dating sim for the PC Engine's Super CD-ROM² System. His girlfriend at the time, later wife, was an employee at Konami working on "". She gave him advice on how to write the story to "Tokimeki Memorial", and he would play "Rondo of Blood" during breaks. Igarashi informed his boss that he had no desire to work on a sequel to "Tokimeki Memorial", and requested a departmental transfer. The strong sales of the game prompted his boss to agree, and Igarashi asked to join the "Castlevania" development team.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
After the release of the Famicom/NES version of "Metal Gear", Konami commissioned the development of its sequel, "Snake's Revenge", without the consent of "Metal Gear" creator Hideo Kojima. According to Kojima's account of the events, he did not have any plans to develop a "Metal Gear" sequel at the time. He was unaware that "Snake's Revenge" was being produced until he became acquainted with a member of the development team on a train ride in Tokyo. The employee briefed him on some details of the project and asked him to create a true sequel. By the end of the train ride, Kojima had already envisioned the basic premise for the game. After being given the go-ahead by his bosses at Konami the next day, he began developing "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake" with the MSX division of Konami. "Metal Gear 2" serves as a follow-up to the original "Metal Gear", ignoring the events of "Snake's Revenge" (which was unreleased in Japan), and every canonical "Metal Gear" title released afterward acknowledge only the events of "Metal Gear 2", relegating "Snake's Revenge" to an apocryphal status.
Konami
After the launch of the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in 1994, Konami became a business divisional organization with the formation of various Konami Computer Entertainment (KCE) subsidiaries, starting with KCE Tokyo and KCE Osaka (which would be later known as KCE Studios) in April 1995, followed by KCE Japan (later known as Kojima Productions) in April 1996. Each KCE subsidiary would end up creating different intellectual properties such as KCE Tokyo's "Silent Hill" series and KCE Japan's "Metal Gear Solid" series (a revival of the "Metal Gear" series on MSX). In 1997, Konami started producing rhythm games for arcades under the Bemani brand and branched off into the collectable card game business with the launch of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.
Hideo Kojima
Due to the success of the original "Metal Gear" on the NES, Konami decided to create a sequel to the game, "Snake's Revenge", without the involvement of Kojima. During a ride home on the train, Kojima met one of the staff members who worked on the game who asked him if he would create a "true" "Metal Gear" sequel. As a result, Kojima began plans for his own sequel titled: "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake". The game was only released in Japan for the MSX2, as one of the last games Konami produced for the computer system. The game would not be released overseas in North America and Europe until its inclusion in 's "".
Kenji Ito
1995 marked the first time since he started composing that he worked on a title outside the "Mana" or "SaGa" series; he composed the music for "Koi wa Balance" and was a member of an eight-person team for "Tobal No. 1". He returned to the "SaGa" series in 1997 with "SaGa Frontier", and finished out the decade with "Chocobo Racing" and "Chocobo's Dungeon 2"; for "Chocobo Racing" he only arranged previous works from the "Chocobo" and "Final Fantasy" series, and contributed only a few tracks to "Chocobo's Dungeon 2". He left Square in 2001 to become a freelance composer. He has said that this move was in order to give him the flexibility to work on more than just video game music.
Hideo Kojima
Kojima has cited Yuji Horii's "The Portopia Serial Murder Case" (1983) and Shigeru Miyamoto's "Super Mario Bros." (1985) as the games that inspired him to enter the video game industry. "Portopia Serial Murder Case", a murder mystery adventure game, was an important influence because, according to Kojima, it had "mystery, a 3D dungeon, humor, and a proper background and explanation of why the murderer committed the crime. That is why there was drama in this game. My encountering this game expanded the potential of video games in my mind." "Portopia" had an influence on his early works, including "Metal Gear" and particularly "Snatcher".
Hacker International
None of Hacker's games, with the exception of their 15 PlayStation titles, were licensed by the respective console manufacturers; Hiroshi Yamauchi personally opposed pornographic content in Famicom games, believing they would tarnish Nintendo's reputation. When Tokuma Shoten's "Family Computer" magazine published advertisements for Hacker's games, it felt its relationship with Nintendo—which it relied on for preview materials—was so threatened that five of Tokuma's top executives travelled to Nintendo to apologise to Yamauchi in person. However, NEC was more tolerant of Hacker's PC Engine releases (under the Games Express brand) and actually thanked Hacker for helping console sales. Hacker became a licensee for the PlayStation under the name Map Japan, releasing 15 games, but eventually closed in 2001 due to competition from other publishers and Hagiwara's own loss of interest in gaming.