A famous Japanese video game creator was falsely linked to the assassination fo Shinzo Abe. Now he says he's considering legal action.

• Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday.
• A false claim linking video game creator Hideo Kojima to the assassination circulated online.

Video game luminary Hideo Kojima became the subject of a viral rumor online falsely linking him to the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Kojima is famous for the making the video game series "Metal Gear" as well as "Death Stranding" which featured performances from stars including Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen.

Abe died on July 8 after he was shot at a campaign event. Japanese police arrested a 41-year-old man named Yamagami Tetsuya following the shooting.

PC Gamer reports that shortly after the assassination a post appeared on message board site 4Chan placing a picture of Kojima's face next to a photo of the suspect.

This claim that Kojima was linked to the assassination circulated online and was shared in a now-deleted tweet by far-right French politician Damien Rieu.

Vice and The Verge report Rieu tweeted a picture of Kojima with the words: "The far-left kills."

"I naively took a joke for information," Rieu said in a follow-up tweet. "My apologies to Hideo Kojima and to fans of Metal Gear," he added.

Vice reported news outlets in Greece and Iran shared images of Kojima in connection with Abe's assassination following Rieu's initial tweet.

Kojima Productions, Kojima's game production company, put out a statement on Twitter saying it: "strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information."

"We do not tolerate such libel and will consider taking legal action in some cases," it added.

Kojima Productions did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider for more detail.