‘Metal Gear Solid 5’ Voice Actress Backtracks, Says Hideo Kojima Has Not Been Fired

The latest twist in an ongoing saga between “Metal Gear Solid 5” director Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami sees voice actress Donna Burke retract her recent statement asserting that Kojima has been fired. Burke’s comments appeared on her Facebook page, where the iDroid actress and singer apologised for providing inaccurate information to gamers.

“Konami is correct in that Kojima has not actually been fired, as I stated previously he and his team are still working hard on getting the game out. My sincere apologies to Konami, Hideo Kojima and the fans for giving the wrong impression,” said Burke on her Facebook page.

Burke’s statement follows a series of tweets issued by her, which were picked up by Videogamer. In the previous tweets, she condemned Konami for firing Hideo Kojima, seemingly confirming rumours that the acclaimed director and his staff are now contractors rather than full-time employees of Konami. Burke went on to state that she was merely trying to echo the sentiment of Solid Snake’s Japanese voice actor Akio Ōtsuka, who had urged fans not to boycott or cancel preorders of “MGS5.”

The ongoing saga has cast a shadow on the pre-release media campaign for “Metal Gear Solid 5” and caused the usually active Hideo Kojima to disappear from Twitter for nearly two weeks. The furore began when a group of Redditor’s noticed that Hideo Kojima’s name and the name of his production company, Kojima Productions were being removed from “MGS” series box art.

Things came to a head when Gamespot ran a report that claimed Kojima and high ranking members of his production company were under a communications block, and were no longer permanent employees of the company. Gamespot claims the tense situation arose due to a power struggle between both parties and goes on to state that Kojima will leave Konami once his contract comes to an end in December.

“Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain” is scheduled for release on PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. The game will be released on console on Sept. 1, with the PC release set for release two weeks later on Sept 15.

(Credit: YouTube/KONAMI Videos)

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