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Kojima comments on removal of Kaz from Ground Zeroes box

As most people will know the boxarts for the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes differ from the western versions mostly in the sense that the latter one doesn’t feature Kaz. Kojima explained the reasons for this earlier in an interview.

Metal-Gear-Solid-V-Ground-Zeroes-Box-Japan
Japanese boxart
Metal-Gear-Solid-V-Ground-Zeroes-Box-PAL
Western boxart

After the western cover was revealed, a lot of people expressed their disappointment with the removal of the character. Now, Hideo Kojima commented once more on this decision, via Twitter.

“I gave direction to GZ key art as I want to do everything incl making trailer by myself. But I let our oversea publisher handle their key art as heard Kaz wasn’t a known character as PW was released on PSP.”

“But the reaction to oversea key art surprised me. People asking “where’s Kaz?”. Now learnt that Kaz’s been well received. The title logo, the key art, and how to leverage them are already planned at the very beginning of game concept phase.”

“I bet all the marketing/PR/sales staff handled/handling my title think I’m such an annoying director. lol”

“In fact I tried to create bloody Snake and Skullface ver. for oversea’s but it looked horror / reminded me if “Enemy Mine”. lol”

It seems like they underestimated how familiar the western audience is with the character. Maybe we’ll see him on the boxarts for The Phantom Pain. The original concept Kojima talks about at the end sounds pretty interesting as well.

Source: Hideo Kojima Twitter

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