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Konami promotes Kojima

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Mar 20, 2009 5:16 pm PT

After gangbusters MGS game sales, Kojima Productions head named executive corporate officer director; pre-GDC lifetime award.

What's in a title? Ask Hideo Kojima. As part of a wave of promotions this week, Konami promoted the eponymous founder of Kojima Productions, presumably as a result of the success of his signature series, Metal Gear Solid. Some 4.5 million Metal Gear games were sold in 2008, helping the Tokyo-based company post a $195 million profit for the April-December period.

Hideo-san, in repose.

For all his efforts--including overseeing development of GameSpot's 2008 Game of the Year, Metal Gear Solid 4--Kojima is now "Executive Corporate Officer Director, Kojima Production," according to an English-language Konami press release. However, the impressive-sounding position doesn't quite have the newest-sounding ring, considering that Kojima's previous position was "Corporate Officer Director, Kojima Production."

Nevertheless, Kojima's honors don't stop with a more highfalutin title. Next Wednesday, the veteran designer will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco. He will also deliver a keynote address to the 2009 Game Developers Conference on Thursday, the day after its main three-day run is kicked off by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Both events, as well as the GDCA awards, will be live-blogged by GameSpot.

300 Comments

  • advanracer

    Posted May 10, 2009 7:28 am PT

    .LEGACY PLAYER. Gotta admit Kojima knows how to make things work. One really has to have expericenced METAL GEAR from the beginning to really appreciate this. nuf said.

  • boogernator

    Posted Apr 18, 2009 7:48 am PT

    NOO MGS4 IS THE LAST IN THE SERIES

  • segg123

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 8:39 pm PT

    you are the best kojima.

  • staley6565

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 5:23 pm PT

    What has Kojima done in comparison you ask? How about crafted time after time, some of the most compelling, genre defining moments of mixed gameplay/story telling in the history of gaming. For all the things Nintendo does great and new, they also hold on to much of the past...and it's been a while since I've seen a Nintendo game change the entire scope of gaming for me (Last time was Ocarina of Time, there have been better games since then, but none that blew me away like that did).

    Kojima blew me away with MGS on PS1, the story and cinematic presentation of MGS2 blew me away on PS2, and on PS3, I feel MGS4 is the perfection of the formula to almost every small detail. I'm not dogging Nin, I think they're just *another* bastion in the evolution of gaming, not the center of the universe...Kojima definitely deserves the award simply because of how hard he works, we all know Nin has gotten plenty so far.

  • timmyg15

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 8:41 am PT

    BtnmHatesRbn, what does this have to do with Miyamoto? he is not mentioned once in the article. The man has devoted his life's work to perfecting his art, and he's done a good job. There is value in mastering one thing and not being a "jack of all trades", so stop drinking that haterade.

  • BtmnHatesRbn posted Mar 25, 2009 6:27 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    BtmnHatesRbn

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 6:27 am PT (hide)

    He's a one-trick pony that keeps re-making the same game over and over again, unlike Miyamoto, that has jumped from idea to idea over and over again, and has radically different design. Case is point is Kojima's games, be it Snatcher, Policenauts, or the Metal Gear series, has the same play mechanics and techniques applied over and over again, while Miyamoto has developed golf games, baseball games, racing games, various action games, RPGs, adventure games, first-person shooters (as supervisor only), 3-D games when the only examples were Alone in the Dark 1 & 2 on the 3DO, polygon co-processor (the Super FX chip), real-time rendered polygon games on a home console (StarFox and Stunt Race FX on SNES), working with Gumpei on Game Boy and Virtual Boy, brought back the analog stick, developed his own rendering software, engines and emulation, and has designed game systems. What has Kojima done? In comparison, nothing.

  • BtmnHatesRbn

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 6:21 am PT

    Well there you go then.

  • toyota22

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 5:12 am PT

    love this man))

  • raze-boi

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 3:24 am PT

    He deserved this! Look at all the listed games on the column on the left!!

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 1:06 pm PT

    well done mgs well done ps3

  • PumpkinBoogie

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 12:32 pm PT

    Who but Kojima-san can not only have the title "Corporate Officer Director" of his own branch of his company with Konami...but now he's got EXECUTIVE to add to that! Now that's crazy impressive, LOL.

    Hell matter a fact, what impresses me more is that I never knew--until now--that Kojima-san with the MGS series helped pushed $195 million in 9 months out of 2008 for Konami. Now that ain't one 'hundred' or one-hundred 'thousand'....no that's over 100 million, pushing close to 200 million!! Wow....


    ....and see kids, THAT is how you earn you a lifetime achievement award--making games that stand the test of time in quality and artistry. Congrats, indeed goes to you and your success Kojima-san. Every bit of that is damn well earned!

  • DRAGENOV

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 11:52 am PT

    yeahh U can say

  • Joshy485

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 9:02 am PT

    Ill read this later.

  • Eyad-93

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 5:59 am PT

    Hideo-san U RULE!!!!!

  • elfimis

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 4:47 am PT

    He deserves every bit of it. His work is some of the best in the industry. I once referred to him as the "Isaac Newton" of gaming.
    He is a genius pure in simple. I cant wait to watch him accept his Lifetime Achievement Award

  • tonyhawksP8

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 3:56 am PT

    Nice new title that means something or rather senior.

  • roberto15

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 2:57 pm PT

    I want my MGS5

  • Leunga

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 1:54 pm PT

    Kojima is up there with Miyamoto

  • GodOfSyn

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 12:58 pm PT

    Love my Hideo lol!

  • lozvil

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 12:40 pm PT

    Kojima is the best...

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