Kojima retweets fan-made MGS 5 pic, Konami files copyright claim

Konami is at it again, this time removing a fan-made Meta Gear image that was retweeted by Kojima himself.

[Activemessiah]

That is just childish and sad... I hope they go under real soon.

[Ravenor]

They're leaving it for Pachinko machines, health clubs, and mobile games. They haven't been serious about console gaming for a long, long time.

I don't honestly know why anyone cares anymore.

[XisThatKid]

Uh oh Ubisoft you have some competition and EA you have some more company.
Edit: Oh yea didn't forget you Activision, thanks for letting someone else get this kind of attention.
Konami, 2015s own Ubisoft/EA/Activision (Capcom can still reclaim its title)

[warczar]

You must be pretty young, franchises like metal gear don't come along everyday.

"I don't honestly know why anyone cares anymore."

You will regret that statement when the only videogame makers left are EA, Activision, and Ubisoft.

[FPS_D3TH]

Lmao you must be young or childish too if you think EA, UBI and Activision have never made good games before. Screw Konami.

[Ravenor]

Not only that dear friends, but since when has the only outlet for great games been larger publishers? I'm very aware that Metal Gear is important, beloved and deservedly so. BUT! If Konami's business plan has less and less to do with console gaming, that's just how it goes. Lords of Shadow 2 didn't do well, other than that and PES/MGS what have they released recently for home platforms? Revengeance? Ground Zeroes? Do we see a pattern?

I'm not saying it's not sad to see them go, I'm just not going to begrudge them for shifting their business priorities.They're going to go where they see higher margins and greater profits, that's just how business especially in Japan is. They don't work in quarters, they work in decades.

If Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony decided they were done with consoles, that would be massive in comparison to Konami bowing out. Konami being gone isn't a big deal, especially with the European publishers, Bethesda, WB and a lot of others. The big three are big for a reason, but there is no reason that another can't rise to their level. Thinking otherwise simply because Konami is gone is paranoid, overly emotional and definitely rooted in nostalgia.

I'm also nearing 30...so yay?

[XisThatKid]

@warczar nah man, I've been following this industry for at least 18 years but one is entitled to beliefs in the face of anonymity. Don't get me wrong I joke and kid about these companies but understand the contribution these devs and companies put in. I loved Skitchen for Genesis not a testament to my age but EA is a very hated company in recent years along with Ubisoft and Capcom etc. And most SHOULD agree. Just search around the net they are giants! Without a doubt and will out last most but today Konami is a piece of $#!¥. No they don't make necessarily make poor quality products but what they've done publicly Or made public has been pretty crazy sh#tty in the public eye like others before them.

I hope that didn't offend you I still love Konami but what's goin on isn't ok ok my book. Unless they change a fans perspective by dropping a special edition PS3 like what was screened and that under cuts them by doing it before but if they have no intention of making one they just sound like an insecure boyfriend. Imho.
Edit: yay I don't feel so old anymore you guys are around my age. Ehem!.....Yea that's cool, the 90s was ok

[ChronoJoe]

With that said PES 16 and MGSV are their biggest budget games ever made!

I don't think they're playing on abandoning console video game development, I think they will just focus their efforts towards their successful and popular IPs like these.

[mechlord]

@Ravenor

"I'm not saying it's not sad to see them go, I'm just not going to begrudge them for shifting their business priorities.They're going to go where they see higher margins and greater profits, that's just how business especially in Japan is. They don't work in quarters, they work in decades."

The problem is not that. They have every right to change their business priorities. The point no one understands and is garnering them heavy bad karma is that they are being dicks about it.

What is the relation between changing priorities and removing all references of kojima in PP?

[kparks]

Yall been whining and complaining about konami for months now grow up and get over it its a business! You wanna blame someone blame the fuckin brain dead idiots thats making flappy bird and candy crush saga millions of dollars. Why would konami spend tens of millions making a ps4/xbox game when they can throw some crap out on mobile and make a ton of money. It feels like its been almost a year now of you fool goin waaaaaaaaa i hate konami they was mean to kojima waaaaaa actin like u know kojima on a personal level and shit.

[Ravenor]

@Mechlord

I get what you're saying buddy, and I do agree. I literally sighed a sigh of relief when the Kojima Productions logo pops up in The Phantom Pain. It's an amazing game and a testament to just how great Kojima is.

Where it gets hazy for me with the removal of Kojima Productions, Kojima's ousting and the other junk is....we have NO IDEA how Kojima is with the executive money people, we have no idea if he was spending the budget for the game efficiently and we have no idea what the original internal time frame for MGS5 was. Look at Rising, a lot of time, money and manpower went into that at Konami. They had to give it to Platinum or it was never going to see the light of day.

[3-4-5]

Childish and immature "leadership"/managem ent.

[ChronoJoe]

Oddly enough, I can't actually imagine it's their leadership that files the copyright claims on twitter.

It is silly though, but this was not necessarily done out of spite. Things like this happen all the time to fan made stuff, especially on youtube.

[DLConspiracy]

MGSV is flying off the shelves so I'm sure that boosts their reign.

[rainslacker]

I know Konami is going off the deep end trying to distance itself from Kojima, but seriously? This kind of stuff is great advertising for a new game....one that just released this week.

Why in God's name would they want to limit the exposure of their new game? Seriously, it costs them nothing, and it's certainly a lot less than all these ads I'm seeing on TV for the game.

[Tempest317]

Probably actually more exposure for the game due to the headlines they are getting.

[81BX]

Depends on what went down between konami and kojima. I find it funny. Be puts his name in a bunch of segements through out the game and they complain about the pic. Tit for tat. As long as no one gets hurt its all good.

[ZaWarudo]

Oh f*** off Konami.

[LAWSON72]

I hope Konami knows any chance to earn anything off MGS after V are nonexistent.

[NinjaNick]

That's complete BS. People will buy any metal gear solid game they produce. Konami will be just fine.

[kaizokuspy]

Nah man. Those of us who played metal gear from the beginning won't give our money to them after metal gear solid 5. Konami will make money on metal gear 6 or whatever, but it will be severely underwhelming after 5 and won't perform anymore after that.

[deafdani]

Not to mention they also own Castlevania and Pro Evolution Soccer, and Silent Hill, along with Contra, which they could always retake to lure people back on nostalgia alone.

Yeah, as much as people love to hate Konami, they still have a few aces on their sleeves. They aren't going away anytime soon.

[MoveTheGlow]

I think they'll have trouble getting everyone back, and it will be an uphill battle for them to ever make gains in the amount of people who play any sequel they try to make after this without Kojima due to fans dropping off.

They're going to try, of course. Their survey indicated that they wanted to know what franchises their fans wanted to play again, and everything but Metal Gear was on there, because by default they'll bring it back, it seems.

[rainslacker]

Nick is actually right. While current actions may hurt future sales, the vast majority of people that play games have no clue about what's going on, and many of them probably never heard of Kojima. Many of them wouldn't even recognize Konami since they don't brand their name on all the games like say EA Sports.

[DarkZane]

@deafdani

Except they are not gonna use any of those IPs ever again (they actually cancelled Silent Hills recently).

You can also forget about a new Suikoden entry as well, that series is definitely dead.

[warczar]

You actually believe that they will make another console game that isn't futbol? I fully believe that the next metal gear will be metal gear:cell phone ops and no self respecting gamer will purchase that crap.

[abstractel]

@warczar After all the recent news about the horrible working conditions there, all the people with talent and other options will now avoid Konami like the plague. Before all these revelations, working on a MGS game was a dream for many talented developers. So I don't see the likelihood of them creating another hit like MGSV to be very likely.

If they outsource, like what they did with Castlevania to the Spanish studio, there's a small possibility. But even an outside studio would be hesitant to work with Konami at this point.

[Revengeance]

In terms of money. Yes they will be fine. Pachinko machines and Yugioh make them too much money.

As for Metal Gear Solid you must be joking. I sure hope that was trolling.

[Spotie]

I usually agree with ya, rainslacker, but not here.

Metal Gear buyers are a bit different. I doubt highly that most buyers are casual buyers of the genre or franchise, as the story alone would be hard for such gamers to keep up with, and who would buy games of existing franchises like this without being able to understand the story?

And people who know the story? Yeah, they know about this behind the scenes stuff. Even if they don't know exactly what's happened, they know Konami has been RIDICULOUSLY disrespectful to Kojima.

True, fans of the other franchises they still bother to produce may continue to buy the games at the same rate, but MGS may be permanently- or at least for quite some time- harmed by Konami's stupidity.

[shadowknight203]

I actually didnt buy mgs5. But tbh im just waitinf for mgo to drop then ill likely buy it

[frostypants]

@kaizokuspy, your idealism is admirable, but I'm sorry...they'll make a ton off the MGS name if they want to. The vast majority of players probably have no clue about the whole dust-up with Konami.

[rainslacker]

MGS is one of those series that has broad appeal. It's a well known series, and games that are well known tend to appeal to the hardcore and mainstream(casual-ish) gamer.

I think the sales my be affected among the hardcore sector, but the general populace probably has no clue what's going on.

On the other hand, a new installment...if it ever happens...will likely receive a ton of skepticism among the community, which could affect word of mouth.

[pompombrum]

Meh who cares, Konami are borderline irrelevant now. They want to dig themselves a faster grave, so be it.

[EinRobot]

Not honorable behavior. Konami should feel shame.

[awi5951]

Dont be fooled by that honorable Japanese stereotype. They can be just as cruel and petty as any people. I thought like that before i lived with them. They can be dicks that are just out for themselves just like everywhere else.

[RosweeSon]

Big company like this acting so Petty, shambles, good riddance, they won't be around much longer at this rate.

[MSBAUSTX]

It saddens me to think that we lost THQ instead of Konami. I want new Metal Gear games made by Kojima but Konami is being a total pile of crap right now and I wish companies that have gone under were still here and somehow Kojima was allowed to make his games away from the dictatorship Konami.

[InTheZoneAC]

you guys allowed konami to stay around longer by buying this high budget game...

[Chaosdreams]

Others might say they are supporting the last piece of work Kojima worked on while at Konami. But ya,

totally just ignore the guys work.

But as of now, yes, let Konami crumble.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

So what? They have zero on the horizon after this. And it is Kojima's work that we support. It just so happens to be under Konami.

[xPaYDaYx]

Everyone sounds kind of mad in the comments. When I first read this I actually laughed because it's the most ridiculous thing I've read in a while. Hopefully everyone gets as much entertainment out of this as I did.

[boodi]

holy shit this is miserable and poor

[KwietStorm_BLM]

This isn't even a joke anymore. I really want to hear Kojima speak on everything after all is done with.

[Shazz]

that is shocking, defo seems like kojima wanted to do other projects in life and konami thought otherwise with him making metal gear games till he dies or some nonsense, will not be touching another konami game

[mkis007]

I thought fan made pictures were not subject to a trademark. How is this legal.

[Dasteru]

They aren't. Filing a false copyright claim on the other hand is a criminal offense. Hopefully Konami is sued to hell for it by the rightful owner. Twitter also for blindly supporting a false claim.

[ReBurn]

I guess the laws may be different depending on where a person is, but in the US there is little legal recourse for copyfraud. A lot of the companies who remove content based on copyright claims remove it immediately via automation and only research removals if there are complaints from the true IP holder.

So if a false DMCA complaint was filed with Twitter there is probably nothing the content creator can really do. There isn't really a government agency in the US that proactively watches for abuse in the DMCA and takes action, even if abuse is illegal.

[Qrphe]

Who knows how Twitter's service terms work but Im sure they can do whatever they want on claims. Im sure you could legally dispute over this and win in court but its definitely not worth it.

[rainslacker]

They aren't so long as they aren't used for commercial purposes and don't come so close to the original that it's hard to discern the difference(Say someone made a 3D model of Solid as a portfolio project and posted it online somewhere).

Even then, so long as it's not used commercially, most companies don't care, as it's basically free advertising.

Twitter tends to err on the side of caution much like YouTube does. Even though many copyright claims are not valid, they'd rather not deal with it. I doubt they even looked at the content, and some bot flagged it as CI to protect twitter.

[Steptoe]

Konami! You truly are pathetic.

[Der_Kommandant]

You are a joke Konami, i bought MGS5 just for Kojima. After that, I ain't buying any of your games.

NEVER

[Enigma_2099]

Not a dime, herr doktor... not a dime!

[Rhythmattic]

I looked up Konami today in the Publisher Gaming Directory.

No number , Just this.....

[indysurfn]

ROFL!

[scark92]

Jerks!

[maybelovehate]

Not cool Konami! But to be fair, copyright takedowns are all done by code these days. Internet is too big to treat them on an individual basis.

[S2Killinit]

silly stuff. as if Kojima is trying to profit from the image. But then again, this might be preemptive response from Konami in protecting the ip from future infringement. particularly by Kojima.

[assdan]

I don't understand what's up with Konami. Are they trying to make themselves look as childish as possible?

[Tdmd]

Can you imagine what's going on in the artist's head? In one moment, Hideo himself is sharing his art! In the next moment, Konami is taking it out. That's just sad.

[2cents]

This is just terrible.
Their PR department is obviously on holiday... or have been shot.

Goodbye konami... Goodbye Snake... Goodbye Zone of the enders...

[PlayableGamez]

#FucKonami

[Duoma]

lol this needs to be a twitter campaign and preferrably posted on every bit of gaming related news tweets.

[indysurfn]

huh! I like....Quick! Copyright it!

[mixelon]

Hahaha. What the hell.

[James-GAMES]

Wow... That's completely disrespectful not only to Kojima but his fans as well. Konami get your head out of your ass you corporate hacks!

[DarXyde]

Never listens to fans, quick to respond with copyright claims.

Flawless Konami logic.

[Relientk77]

Oh thanks for the update, Konami is still lame

[lildudexst]

Wow Konami is really trying to get a bad rep which is not good none other companies yu have and game. At this point my last and final game from them is mgs5. From here out tell people don't care about there fan. Don't support them.

[N0TaB0T]

Did Kojima piss in your cereal Konami? BTW your MGS5 is going to flounder its launch with the disgustingly inconsistent pre order offers.

[ABBAJESUS]

Kojima is like Konami's ex bf, wich she can't leave alone.

[PhoenixUp]

Konami is a phantom of their former selves. I've never seen a major company treat its star player with so much disrespect to this extent.

[lunatic0001]

I stoped caring a long time ago...konami is a company so if they think their console games aren't making enough money like their other departments then so be it...I just want this crap to end...why are people still posting articles about konami...when you don't like something you ignore it or stop talking about how it altogether not keep mentioning them when they do something questionable...just let them do whatever the hell they want to do and lets just move on already

[N0TaB0T]

Thing is Konami could have moved on MONTHS ago.

They have the money to do so, no argument against that whatsoever.

Classic shark behavior.

[dafegamer]

How they treat one of the greatest Minds of this Industry is
really sad and buffling for me

[WitWolfy]

Konami: Fans??? Screw the "fans"!

[contradictory]

Now's the time Internet! Let's collectively lose our shit like it's 2013 again! :D

[Locknuts]

As a person who hasn't enjoyed a Konami game since the original MGS I find all of this business quite funny.

[SegaGamer]

Wow, that is just really pathetic.

[Soldierone]

Konami sucking aside, does anyone have the actual pic? I want to see it still!

[lizard81288]

I can't wait for the next Metal Gear Solid game, Metal Gear Erotic, which will be a Pachinko.

/s

PULL THE LEVER!!!!