Fri, Mar 15, 2013 | 05:22 GMT

Phantom Pain developer Joakim Mogren appears, covered in bandages

If Konami really wants us to believe Joakim Mogren and his Swedish studio Moby Dick are real, they’re going to have to do better than front a bloke with his face covered in bandages.

Joakim Mogren, whose first name is a suspiciously perfect anagram of “Kojima”, met with GTTV’s Geoff Keighley for an interview today, as promised.

Keighley, who hosted the Spike Awards where Moby Dick’s The Phantom Pain was announced, posted an Instagram of the man he interviewed. Joakim will also appear in video footage on GTTV later today.

The man’s bandaged face is eerily similar to that of a character who assist the protagonist in The Phantom Pain trailers, which makes it all taste like a marketing stunt, but one thing’s for sure: while Joakim Mogren may be an actor playing a role, the man shown here definitely isn’t Hideo Kojima.

Keighley, who of all journalists would be expected to be in on a joke or stunt if there is one, seems genuinely a bit confused by the whole affair.

“Joakim Mogren was a man I’m pretty sure I’ve not met before. He did show some new images on his iPad,” he tweeted.

“The guy was definitely not Kojima. He legitimately seemed Sweedish. And I’m skeptical if he is actually a game developer,” he added, and when asked whether there was any chance the game is Metal Gear-releated, continued with:

“Definitely still a chance, once you see the interview a bit more will become clear.”

The interview will air at 10:00PM PST.

“It was a weird interview, I’ll tell you that much,” was his parting shot.

The Phantom Pain is very probably a Metal Gear-related project, though, promoted at Spike TV by a distinctly un-Swedish set of Konami staff.

Thanks, Gematsu.

25 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Konami
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25 comments

#1

doa766
14/03/13, 10:19 pm

it doens’t matter how convincing this guy is, he’s clearly not the person featured in the original picture

#2

Lengendaryboss
14/03/13, 10:22 pm

Good grief; how far marketing will stretch into reality thanks to Joakim Mogren.

#3

ActionGameKing
14/03/13, 10:22 pm

Thank you Hideo Kojima for bringing some excitement back to Game promotion. Hope other developers catch on and try more innovative/unexpected marketing schemes.

#4

Lengendaryboss
14/03/13, 10:23 pm

@3 Oh i agree certainly more exciting that way.

#5

KAP
14/03/13, 10:24 pm

This getting a little silly now.. Right?

#6

FeaturePreacher
14/03/13, 10:25 pm

Perhaps Kojima is trying to make a point of how biased the press is against him. All he has to do is pretend like he’s not the one behind the game and all of a sudden the press is excited about it.

#7

Brenna Hillier
14/03/13, 10:27 pm

Updated.

If he turns out to be really real we’re all going to be kind of disappointed now.

#8

ActionGameKing
14/03/13, 10:36 pm

LOL @7. I’m sure it will be mind-bending.

#9

Rosseu
14/03/13, 10:48 pm

^definitely :D

#10

Dark
14/03/13, 10:53 pm

http://i.imgur.com/jdXH9xP.jpg

#11

manamana
14/03/13, 10:55 pm

Don’t know what all the fuss is about. It’s clearly MGS V and it’s an old hat: http://www.gamecity.ch/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Phantom-Pain.jpeg

And Mr.Keighley is really good at playing the clueless media guy anyway. It’s all marketing but hey, at least it’s creative!

#12

SlayerGT
14/03/13, 10:57 pm

“Keighley, who of all journalists would be expected to be in on a joke or stunt if there is one, seems genuinely a bit confused by the whole affair.”

He knows its Metal Gear. He probly just doesn’t know who this guy is. Go back and watch the pre-show before the VGAs. He speaks about the Phantom Pain secretly. I caught it so I’m surprised no one else has.

#13

YoungZer0
14/03/13, 11:08 pm

Yeah, this is getting rather stupid now.

#14

lexph3re
14/03/13, 11:35 pm

I love this, creative marketing has been awol this gen. When we got butler it was funny, but where is the live action crashes? The fighting mario characters in suits? The creativity has just been gone. The CoD commercial with actors was interesting but was just a good demo reel for actors.

I liked the Live Action PAS commercials, and the GoWA trailer was great. The deadspace 3 one was really corney though. I really would like to see more commericials embracing the personality of games as opposed to just game footage reel then a companies logo

#16

YoungZer0
15/03/13, 12:01 am

I’d laugh my ass off if that is true. You can already smell the shitstorm coming.

#17

dotfaust
15/03/13, 12:57 am

This is fantastic. I’m sure all the strange marketing surrounding “The Phantom Pain” is definitely going to tie into the narrative themes of MGS Ground Zeroes. This seems very similar to how MGS 2′s marketing tied directly into the games theme of information control and manipulation on the net. Definitely gonna check out this interview!

#18

Clupula
15/03/13, 4:13 am

Oh, Kojima, don’t ever change.

#19

hosseincode
15/03/13, 7:08 am

this is why i love kojima
i love mystery

#20

NeoSquall
15/03/13, 12:23 pm

I’ve been watching the video and photos of Cliff for half an hour and I’m 80% sure it’s him under the bandages.
Next step is cutting the bandages from the image and placing them on the photos.

#21

NeoSquall
15/03/13, 1:31 pm

I stand corrected: I found that “Joakim” has a mole on his nose, which Cliff doesn’t have.

#22

Rosseu
16/03/13, 3:12 am

Kojima’s tweet with laptop showing top portion of the Joakim picture:
https://twitter.com/Kojima_Hideo/status/312416688039673856/photo/1/large

#23

IL DUCE
18/03/13, 6:28 pm

Idk…I wouldn’t be surprised if Kojima went as far to dye his hair, wear blue contacts and learn how to speak with a Swedish seeming accent…anyone else think it could just be Kojima in heavy disguise?

#24

NeoSquall
18/03/13, 6:29 pm

You can’t fake caucasian eye slits if you’re Japanese.

#25

YoungZer0
18/03/13, 6:30 pm

He’d also need to change his whole face structure.

This is getting ridiculous. It’s either an employee or a bad actor.

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