Former Square Enix Executive Addresses Kojima Controversy

It was always a well-known ‘secret’ that Kojima was being treated like a sack of old crap by Konami, but now that the Game Awards have made that more or less ‘official’, you’re finding more people willing to speak out on the topic within the industry. And one of the best voices we can find actually turns out to be former Square Enix Executive Yoichi Wada, who commented on the controversy on his facebook page.

Unfortunately, it’s in Japanese, but fortunately Kotaku translated it, so:

“As I know Mr. Kojima, I want to say, ‘I can’t believe this cruel treatment!’ But, here I’m going to give my thoughts as a corporate exec,. However you think about this, this is a negative for business. Maybe leaving the home console market is management’s plan, but going out of your way to make enemies with the world has no meaning. Generally, this kind of thing happens when there’s a lack of leadership. I think, perhaps, there isn’t someone in charge who is paying attention and laying out all the little details for whole enterprise. When you are not aware that the feelings of your own department aren’t aligned with the world at large, the results can be deplorable.”

Pretty logical, I’d say. We’re still not 100% certain why Konami decided to go crazy lately, because it wasn’t that long ago they were a fine, well-respected company with a good track record of solid games, but with luck, when Kojima is released and can finally speak up, we’ll learn more about what turned Konami crazy.

In the meantime, like Yoichi Wada, all we can do is speculate.