Kojima almost resigned from Konami after 9/11 impacted Metal Gear Solid 2 release

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima almost cancelled Metal Gear Solid 2 and resigned from developer Konami following the events of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack.

Kojima’s comments come from a recently-translated interview with magazine Weekly Toyo Keizai (thanks Games Radar), in which he states the game required 300 revisions following 9/11, leaving his team in “crisis mode”.

The end of the game has Arsenal Gear (a giant military fortress) crashing into Manhattan, but the final release shows only the before and after, with the rest left to the player’s imagination.

“The depiction of [the] game’s themes and its numerous similarities with the real-world events on September 11th rendered it unfit for release at the time,” said Kojima.

“After consulting with lawyers, the end result was that the game required revisions in 300 spots. It goes without saying that we were in crisis mode and it was threatening the release and sale of the game.”

He was called to a meeting with Konami’s board of directors to describe the game’s plot. The response? “Everyone’s facial expression had a look of ‘this is not good’,” said Kojima.

As a result he believed “the game shouldn’t be released at this period in time” and he had “no other choice but to take responsibility and resign from the company”.

Instead he was persuaded to stay by Ken Kutaragi, then Sony Computer Entertainment president, and Kagemasa Kozuki, founder of Konami.

Kutaragi responded “this is not a matter you should be ashamed of. You should go ahead and release the game”. Meanwhile Kojima “reached out to Kagemasa Kozuki, the founder of Konami through email. He responded with, ‘I have made up my mind. The game should be released. What are your thoughts?’ I was moved by the words and I too made up my mind.”

The game’s eventual release was “postponed by a few weeks” until November 2001.

Kojima has recently been reflecting on the series and its prescience, including how the digital battlefield of Metal Gear Solid 4 is “no longer science fiction”.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, originally released three years after the second game in 2004, is now being remade for modern consoles.

Other games in the series may also be considered, with a spokesperson for Konami recently stating it will “listen to player demand and consider accordingly”.