Hideo Kojima and Team Members Absent From Famitsu Awards

Despite winning three categories at the annual Famitsu Awards, Hideo Kojima and his team members were inexplicably absent, having regularly appeared at the event in the past.

According to Kotaku, Hideo Kojima and his team members at the presumably defunct Kojima Productions were not in attendance at the annual Famitsu Awards to accept three major wins. P.T. won an innovation award, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes won the "Award of Excellence" prize and the Metal Gear Solid series won the "Game Media Award" (oh the irony). The event was thrown by Famitsu and Dengeki, two of the biggest video game news websites and magazines in Japan. Kojima and his team members have regularly attended the event in the past, as the Metal Gear Solid franchise is no stranger to winning a ton of awards. Industry figureheads like Super Smash Bros. creator/director Masahiro Sakurai and Square Enix's Yoshinori Kitase were in attendance, having won a few awards themselves.

We know what you're thinking: "maybe they're just working late that night on The Phantom Pain" or "it's not like they have to go." The Famitsu Awards is one of the Japanese gaming industry's biggest events, where most figureheads appear, regardless of what major projects they have coming or even if they weren't nominated for anything, and Kojima is no stranger to making public appearances and accepting high-end awards for Metal Gear.

The lack of Kojima or his team members' is likely due to his expected departure from Konami and the apparent closing of Kojima Productions. Last month, we noticed that Konami started removing the famous tagline of "A Hideo Kojima Game" from its current Metal Gear Solid lineup as it closed down Kojima Productions' websites and removed any Kojima Productions-related social media accounts from the Metal Gear franchise, making new social media accounts for the franchise without Kojima's name attached to them. All signs are pointing towards Kojima leaving Konami after The Phantom Pain launches on Sept. 1, and the lack of Kojima or Kojima Productions at the Famitsu Awards reminds us that things will no longer be the same.