“Last year, I thought I lost everything. But I didn't.”
At The Game Awards 2016, while collecting the Industry Icon award, Kojima—a year after Konami had banned him from attending—said from the stage that the previous year he thought he had lost everything.
Kojima spent almost three decades at Konami, beginning in 1986. In 2015, amid a bitter split, Konami removed Kojima's name from Metal Gear Solid V marketing; at The Game Awards in December 2015 the game won awards but Kojima did not attend, reportedly barred from attending by Konami. That same month Kojima re-established Kojima Productions as an independent studio partnered with Sony. Silent Hills had been cancelled in April 2015.
“I think what happened to Hideo Kojima last year was a tragedy, but he never complained. He just sat in an isolated room for months, looked inside himself and focused on his art.”
In 2026 Kojima was scheduled to give a talk at the Game Developers Conference about his fateful decision a decade ago to go independent after a messy breakup with Konami, but he withdrew without offering an explanation; Kojima Productions announced he would not attend and said that some members of the studio would still present at the event.
“I will not retire. I will continue to create games as long as I live.”
“I thought that I could never recover. I felt like I might not ever be able to create a game again.”