It seems that Metal Gear Solid 5 no longer bears the name of the series’ creator, Hideo Kojima.
New versions of the game’s box art no longer carries Kojima’s name. The art originally showed the Kojima Productions logo, and the line “A Hideo Kojima Game.”
This comes just after Otsuka Akio, the Japanese voice actor for Metal Gear Solid’s protagonist Snake, stated that Kojima Productions no longer exist. He said: “[Kojima Productions] has been disbanded. It appears that the work that the team has been putting their utmost effort into is nearly complete.”
This is not the first time that Konami has removed Kojima’s name from their titles. In March, the publisher deleted the Kojima Productions branding from the Silent Hills/PT website. Soon after the project was canceled. Konami also took the Kojima branding off of the official artwork and marketing material for Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, as well as Twitter and the company’s office listing.
A source close to Kojima Productions told Gamespot back in March that Kojima is expected to leave Konami following Metal Gear Solid 5’s completion. The team’s contracts run until December.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will release on September 1st. The game will release on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The PC version releases two weeks later.