Konami: The Downspiral Shitstorm + The Impossible Task of Winning Back Fans (METAL GEAR SURVIVE) - HIT THE LEVER

[José Mourinho]

This logo right up here should be familiar with almost every gamer out there. Everytime someone mentions the word "Konami", people thought up of the following phrases: "Contra", "Pro Evolution Soccer", "Metal Gear Solid" and more.

But why did I make this thread? Because right now there's so many shitstorms in Konami atm that it's worth a thread. There's some I missed though, so please feel free to add on to this thread.

1. Kojima Controversy

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http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/27/timeline-of-the-kojima-konami-controversy
Who cannot forget Hideo Kojima, the genius behind the "Metal Gear Solid" series. Things are going well, when all of a sudden - apparently there were rumors that Kojima was leaving! This was followed by job listings for Konami for the Metal Gear franchise, how Konami tried to remove his name for future Metal Gear series and how Konami doesn't even want him to be mentioned in interviews. There's more to that, you can click the link above to find out more.

2. Castlevania and Silent Hill.... Pachinko Machines
No comment. These 2 videos speak for itself. Keep in mind that one Silent Hill game is cancelled for this too.

3. Other Stuff

• http://www.gamespot.com/articles/troubling-konami-culture-exposed-in-new-article/1100-6429392/ - Konami treating staff terribly
• http://www.gamespot.com/articles/konami-voluntarily-delists-itself-from-new-york-st/1100-6426924/ - Konami delists itself from New York Stock Exchange
• http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/14/konami-focusing-on-mobile-games - After developing games for the PC and consoles for years, Konami decides to... focus only on mobile games. What genius.

 

[GS 281]

They'll be okay. They just need to hit Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.

 

[Lacquer Head]

what a shame, The new Silent Hill could have actually been a good game for once

 

[ATM]

Konami have been making things they no longer give a shit about into pachinko/pachislot machines for a long time. Gradius, Parodius, Goemon and Contra amongst others have all met this fate. If Konami decide to turn something into pachinko then it's dead to them. All they have left is a few popular arcade franchises like Bemani. I'm kind of interested to see what they decide to do with Sparkster's decaying corpse when they eventually decide to dig it up.
I've been pretty upset with Konami for a few years now, but I never expected it to get this bad.

 

[CatParty]

They'll be okay. They just need to hit Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.

dang it you stole my pun lol i was going to say it should be a "Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right spiral"

 

[Cubanodun]

The problem with konami is that Dragon Collection was a huge success in japan, they saw that they could do mobile games that give great revenues investing very little in development, Kojima however required a huge investment to make one game, ok the game is a top seller that would make revenues but not as fast as something like Dragon collection could make

Konami now believes that making shitty games in mobile is going to give the same revenues as their normal games, they just believe that people is going to waste money in them after shitting on P.T and removing Kojima because he was 2expensive and awesome to live, and to get things worse they release that fucking pachinko machine of silent hill

NOW Kojima is a free man thank to the gods in the north and now he can do whatever the hell he wants

 

[AN/ALR56]

I hope kojima either goes with Sony/Microsoft
Because they have endless budgets and give some freedom.
Or he could go the kickstarter way,probably would top the star citizen record.

 

[Sunny-D]

Apparently Guillermo Del Toro has decided to never work on a video game again after this. So much for the hopes of he and Kojima still going ahead working on a project under a different title.

 

[MiloWuCollusion]

Konami problems were probably there before Kojima. But the rise of mobile and their gambling enterprises probably helped them to stop pretending they like Kojima and game development in general.

Many veterans executives had leaved the company for years, the Love Plus guy resonates because he got out a week before the shitstorm with Kojima started to be well known.

 

[_blank_]

Konami took a hard look at things. They figured they had two choices:

1) Continue to focus time and resources into game development, which is becoming increasingly to make a profit on without having to focus on selling millions of units just to break even, and hopefully continue to appease a core audience of stalwart fans who, like most fans adorned in nostalgia-tinted glasses, with balk and scream bloody murder if any of their favorites are changed in any way (example: "Bawwww David Hayter isn't voicing Solid Snake!" "Bawwwww Silent Hill Downpour isn't as groundbreaking as Silent Hill 2!" "Bawww Castlevania isn't doing the same thing it's done for the last decade!" ).

OR

2) Focus on gambling machines, which they already have a huge share of the market in already (I mean their US home office is literally a stone's throw away from Vegas), where they can make cheaper games, have minimal competition, and their patrons literally feed money into their machines in the US, and maybe soon in Japan if their lobbying to make gambling legal in their country is successful.

Even though I don't have a PS4, I am saddened about the loss of Silent Hills as that would have probably been what would have given me enough of a push to get a console. I am going to be buying MGS5, as I nervously wonder if that will be Konami's swan song for console gaming.

 

[Whatisgoingon]

How the once mighty have fallen. The higher ups in Konami only seem to give a shit about profits no matter how they are made, and the result is this mess.

 

[DuskEngine]

The best I can hope for is that they liquidate their 'core' games division and auction off all their franchises a la THQ. I can't imagine sticking the castlevania logo on a slot machine makes it significantly more attractive to anyone.

 

[SU 390]

They banned Elemental Hero Stratos.........

Fuck Konami.

#freestratos

 

[Watcher]

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here. The likely reason Konami's reacting in this way is they're afraid the company is going to go out of business.

MGS5 was delayed constantly, and it was expensive as hell to produce. I'm guessing Konami projected how the company's finances are going and the CEO (who seems to be more interested in the fitness clubs and gambling side of the company) wants to cut the gaming division altogether to focus on that. The rest is a clumsy hammer and nail approach to business while they are trying to get their last titles out and fire everyone.

It's not a pretty sight but I don't see Konami's actions as soley evil. I see them as reactionary toward how the industry has changed.

I hope kojima either goes with Sony/Microsoft
Because they have endless budgets and give some freedom.
Or he could go the kickstarter way,probably would top the star citizen record.

Kojima is already used to "endless budgets" which results in his constantly delayed projects.

Most likely he's going to create a new studio, and he's likely going to do a throwback to an old franchise he did (like Policenauts or something else) or do something new entirely. A kickstarter is also likely given how popular it's gotten.

 

[Dio Brando]

 

[MrTroll]

I don't blame Konami one bit for shitcanning Kojima. The guy's a fucking diva and clearly MGS doesn't sell well enough to justify putting up with his bullshit.

 

[Optimus Prime]

This is probably a bit obscure, but just to show how Konami's been cutting off fringe divisions or whatever to maximize those quick-return investments in gambling, the earliest signs of this might have been when Konami just up and stopped anything and everything to do with their moderately successful Busou Shinki toy/video game product line. The cited reason for the initial stoppage of development despite four prototypes of unreleased figures known to exist since 2012 was something about costs of production disagreements with the factory that made the physical figures on the "Multi-Movable System" (MMS) which the Shinkis were built upon (basically, they're like more hardcore robot barbies where instead of clothes it's stereotypical giant mecha type stuff). But Konami also stopped putting out the associated Battle Rondo PSP game which was making a tidy profit through microtransactions and didn't necessarily require people to buy the toys to play the game.

But last month, the IP of Busou Shinki popped up again but this time on a different figure joint system and exclusively produced through Kotobukia, a well known hobby supply manufacturer (pretty much everything involving giant robot model kits that ISN'T made by Bandai ala Gundams is made by Kotobukia).
http://figurenews.blog.jp/archives/44896143.html

No idea if there will be more related games, but the important thing to take away from this is that Konami's given away their relatively well-secured place in an entire market that's huge in Japan by losing the Shinki IP, an IP that was not doing horribly in the slightest.

 

[XYZpdq]

This is probably a bit obscure, but just to show how Konami's been cutting off fringe divisions or whatever to maximize those quick-return investments in gambling, the earliest signs of this might have been when Konami just up and stopped anything and everything to do with their moderately successful Busou Shinki toy/video game product line. The cited reason for the initial stoppage of development despite four prototypes of unreleased figures known to exist since 2012 was something about costs of production disagreements with the factory that made the physical figures on the "Multi-Movable System" (MMS) which the Shinkis were built upon (basically, they're like more hardcore robot barbies where instead of clothes it's stereotypical giant mecha type stuff). But Konami also stopped putting out the associated Battle Rondo PSP game which was making a tidy profit through microtransactions and didn't necessarily require people to buy the toys to play the game.

But last month, the IP of Busou Shinki popped up again but this time on a different figure joint system and exclusively produced through Kotobukia, a well known hobby supply manufacturer (pretty much everything involving giant robot model kits that ISN'T made by Bandai ala Gundams is made by Kotobukia).
http://figurenews.blog.jp/archives/44896143.html

No idea if there will be more related games, but the important thing to take away from this is that Konami's given away their relatively well-secured place in an entire market that's huge in Japan by losing the Shinki IP, an IP that was not doing horribly in the slightest.

Shinki was a massive clusterfuck. They had a show ages after the toys were long out of print because... yeah. And so of course they reissued NONE of them.

 

[José Mourinho]

http://mobilesurvey.blicx.com/?

Konami is now asking for our opinions in a "Konami Heritage Games Survey". Let them know about your opinions!

 

[Bork Laser]

I understand the gambling machines. You get those in Vegas and its a money maker. But going to mobile gaming now? I think they kinda missed the boat on that. While its still popular, unless your a franchise like that candy game or angry birds, its pretty hard to get a sizeable foothold on things.