I honestly don't understand why they would go through the trouble of signing on everyone on a temporary contract so that the original creators get to finish their game while simultaneously
removing all references crediting Kojima AND making their work conditions terrible, as if to hinder their work despite having signed them on to continue the game they are funding themselves. That's not stupidity, that's insanity. I guess I'm one to talk
Uh, no. The literally cannot fail to credit him, unless they try to pull some Atari crap from back in the 70's and 80's, but that just won't fly these days.
The only references that are erased are the tagline "A Hideo Kojima Game" and the studio named "Kojima Productions". We even see (in the E3 footage) individual in-game credits at the start of every mission, which lists every person involved with the creation of that mission, which constantly references Kojima and other key staff. Granted, Konami could have ripped those out, but I doubt they have or are going to if they let both the journalists who played MGSV at the press event, and everyone at home, see them in game.
If they were going to remove every mission start credits roll, they'd do it pretty quickly after the meltdown. I think it's very unlikely that they'd have left public traces of their existence, and besides they
are credits, credits which intentionally mimic the way a TV show displays key credits at the beginning of an episode, and you can't legally not credit people for their work. And deleting them would not be just Kojima's problem, ultimately all of Kojima Productions probably come up in there one way or another, so they'd be taking the names of a couple hundred people from their work.
And sure, they are all probably credited in the final credits of the game, and Konami could just leave that in order to credit everyone involved and remove every thing else, but that just seems very unlikely for them to do something so risky and controversial after they've already showed them in public gameplay.
I do wonder if Kojima put so many credits in because it would be controversial to remove them though... I believe that this is not a hoax, and that Konami is really cutting all ties, because the business logic doesn't add up, but GZ's seeming prediction of the situation is interesting to say the least. GZ came out in March 2014, and this whole situation blew up shortly after the reveal of MGSV's release date in March this year, right? Very strange, but I still don't see it being likely that Konami is playing along, since this drastically screws with their business interests.
Maybe its like Emperor Bohe said and:
Perhaps it started as (a hoax), but then it became real somehow
But no way is it a hoax through and through. It either started as a plan for one, and turned real, Kojima planned to leave anyways (most likely IMO), or everything blew up unexpectedly. Though I think Kojima did want to make Silent Hills before he left, he seemed pretty passionate about it.
