Following the news that Kojima Productions has been officially closed down, Konami has removed all mention of Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s box art. This is a particularly interesting and somewhat aggressive move, as usually studios keep their credit, at least in a small way, even when they part ways with a publisher or a bigger studio. However, Konami seems to be happier attempting to erase Kojima’s existence.
Though, to be honest, this was to be expected. Konami has been trying to wipe Kojima from the face of games for some time. His name was removed from all marketing materials, and any mention of him or his company, Kojima Productions, was removed from all Konami websites, Twitter and Facebook accounts, and any other online asset that could somehow advertise for Metal Gear Solid V or any other Konami game. Heck, they even removed his name from the Silent Hills website before announcing that the project was closed all together. The Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain box art was just the last thing to go.
That being said, I don’t think Konami is doing a very good job. Kojima is a household name, and his work on Metal Gear Solid basically helped catapult the PlayStation into popularity when it was otherwise just a third party console in an already huge console war. Simply erasing his name from a Metal Gear game isn’t going to remove the associations fans already have developed..
Source: Konami