When he presented Hideo Kojima with the Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards last night, Geoff Keighley briefly talked about some of the difficult conditions Kojima experienced while completing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain last year before officially leaving Konami.

In an interview with Glixel that took place last week, Keighley elaborated on what Kojima had to go through in 2015, which included being locked away in an office on a separate floor from the development team and Konami not allowing him to attend The Game Awards last year:

I haven’t talked much about that, but it was such a difficult time because he was going through a lot last year. The fact that he finished that game under those circumstances is just amazing. He was locked in a separate room on a different floor than his development team for the final six months of development. He couldn’t even talk to them – he had to talk through someone else. That’s how that game was finished.

In an emailed statement about Keighley, Kojima said, “The Game Awards is one of the biggest events of the year: it is edgy and influential, and it keeps raising the bar for the industry. Geoff, being the person behind it, is without a doubt one of the people with the deepest love for video games.”

During The Game Awards, Hideo Kojima showed off a new trailer for Death Stranding.

[Source: Glixel]