HWcase1 Q1

For this case I will be examining the ethics behind the infamous Konami / Kojima company breakup in 2015, one of the most egregious cases of ethical dilemma in the gaming market. My sources come from Polygon and The New Yorker from initial 2015 interviews, SVG's review from this year, and Konami's revenue reports.

Five important facts are:

1. Hideo Kojima, game designer, had worked for the publishing company Konami since 1986. Additionally, he creates sub-company Kojima Studios in 2005. His most notable work was within the "Metal Gear" series, which ran under his control from then until 2015 when "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" released. The series was wildly popular in America.
2. In 2007, Japanese company GREE shook the market with a new model for online games. This was an accessible free-to-play model which heavily influenced Konami's interests years later due to the profit the scene obtained in Japan. In the years around the 2010s, Konami appeared to be experiencing major revenue fluctuation, likely due to the production of the "Metal Gear" games.
3. In 2014, Kojima announces in collaboration with Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus that Kojima Studios is developing a new "Silent Hill" game, a series of which they had just 'acquired' and was as equally beloved as the "Metal Gear" franchise was.
4. In 2015, a few months before the release of "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain", Konami announced a corporate restructuring in the works. This began most notably with Konami quietly removing Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions' branding from the upcoming game's promotional material. This would soon cause a falling out with Kojima and Konami which inspired disbandment between the two soon after. The game came out and would be renown for being quite unfinished compared to what Kojima had planned for it, assumedly Konami had forced the development team to cut corners on Kojima's final "Metal Gear" project.
5. In the same year after Kojima's disbandment with the company (along with a plethora of employees), Konami cancelled the new "Silent Hill" production and put up a job listing for development on a new "Metal Gear" game called "Metal Gear Survive" which would come out later in 2018 - a "Metal Gear" game made entirely without Kojima. Along with this, Konami prevented Hideo Kojima from accepting his awards at the global Game of the Year ceremony for his work on "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain". Now, Konami has compartmentalized the series to videos played on Japanese gambling machines and mobile minigames.

Three questions to ask about the case are:

1. Despite less apparent market growth, Konami appears to be in a more stable place after phasing out Kojima than they were before. Would you commit to the similar actions as Konami if you knew your company would be more stable?
2. Imagine you owned an art studio and a member of your team was known for pushing the limits of your budget and time for the benefit of their own creation, how far would you let them go? Would you remove them from the team if they went too far?
3. Are the ethics here relative or is there an absolute ethical conclusion?

Three additional standard questions:

• What does virtue ethics say about this case?
• What does utilitarianism say about this case?
• What does deontology say about this case?