Konami to primarily focus on mobile gaming

[Trassk]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...g-forward.aspx

There has been mounting evidence that Konami is shifting its priority away from console gaming. As we reported earlier this week, the company’s revenues from console titles has dropped 30 percent over the past three years. Now, a direct statement indicates where the company’s new priorities lay.

Speaking to Nikkei, Konami Digital Entertainment president Hideki Hayakawa says that mobile is the company’s future. “From now on, mobile is at the center,” Hayakawa told Nikkei (roughly translated via Google).

He also indicates that key franchises, like Metal Gear Solid, may also be pushed into the mobile space. The company is exploring ways to expand its presence in that sector in Japan and overseas.

Earlier in the week, we reported that Konami’s upcoming release schedule only includes one global release (Metal Gear Solid V). Though, with Pro Evolution Soccer not yet announced for this year, it wouldn’t appear on the document in question. At the same time in 2012, Konami had six titles slated for global or Western release on consoles and handhelds.

Well, there you have it. from the company that brought some of the most awesome game changing titles like silent hill, metal gear, castlevania and loads more, having abandoned these titles to obscurity, even letting go of one of the biggest names they had, Hideo Kojima, and after cancelling Silent Hills, removing PT from the store, and more or less digging over so many of its past games that put it on the map, Konami's new head, Hideki Hayakawa, says theit focus will be to mobile gaming, looking away from the huge ground breaking titles, and now just focused on cheaply made games they can squeeze money from people as they sit on the shitter.

Gotta say, I'm kinda let down by this. I loved Konami games, grew up on them, all the fighting games, the castlevania games, metal gear games, the early silent hill titles, some of my most fav titles came from this. And now they are just letting go of that, and following the stereotypical evil company path of, well, this.



And before anyone gets snarky about 'its a company they can do what they want!', yes, they can, but that doesn't mean people can't feel let down and betrayed by a company they held in higher regard for years, who brought them some of their best gaming memories. So yes, they can sell their souls, which they'd do, but it makes it feel like company just died now. Even that little bit of hope maybe they could pull something off is gone now.

[Trassk]

Jeez. So damn dramatic.

We didn't all grow up on pc and mobile gaming.

[PuppetShowJustice]

We knew this. Igarashi left the company to do his own thing because he didn't want to work on mobile games and that is what the company was pressuring him to do. If you look at interviews about his new kickstarter project (Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for those unaware who might care) he has said that he's very pleased to be working on a game "that uses a controller".

[Shadow Fox]

Konami has just made a hole for their own grave...
AlphaOmegaSin has made a video about it as well.

[Trassk]

Konami has just made a hole for their own grave...
AlphaOmegaSin has made a video about it as well.

Oh yeah saw it.

[madethisfor1post]

So glad I grabbed P.T. before it went AWOL.

[Deleted]

I love how every developer company who's kind of doing bad for the moment always resorts to the mobile market.

[Trassk]

So glad I grabbed P.T. before it went AWOL.

I'd be disappointed tbh, just looking at P.T being the last shrived idea of a great silent hill game now gone.

[Acidbaron]

Didn't Kojima leave instead of getting fired?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I guess they're going to be a figure of the past. A Relic if you will. What's worse is Konami will take it's ips with them.

[Sky High]

jim Sterling was right all along.

[Trassk]

Didn't Kojima leave instead of getting fired?

According to several sources, including the castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi, konami ended up treating many of its creators like shit. He left because the company using bullying tactics to silence him about information. I think DeL Toro left ship from silent hills for a similar reason.

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I guess they're going to be a figure of the past. A Relic if you will. What's worse is Konami will take it's ips with them.

thats what pisses me off the most, we're never see a new metal gear, castlevania or the like of any quality again, and just have to settle for people making mock up versions of the games without the characters we've come to know.

[Spraxle]

This news is disgusting really. I'm so tired of gaming shifting to the 'mobile market'. It's a bullshit market that only makes money for people who rip off Candy Crush (which is a rip off). It's sad.

This is the kind of stuff that reminds me why I am getting tired of modern gaming. Shorter games. Less content in those games. Constant rehashes. Micro transaction infested shit stains of games. *sigh*

[Acidbaron]

I guess they're going to be a figure of the past. A Relic if you will. What's worse is Konami will take it's ips with them.

If the mobile platform doesn't kick off they can always sell or the board can appoint a new CEO and go a new direction.

[Trassk]

I want to know what cancerous lump on its CEOs brain makes him think mobile gaming is the future. Its a gimmick tied into cheap games made that people don't spend a lot of time or dedication to. I only play a mobile game when in the john, or stood at a bus stop. They have no depth, or story, no soul, is just a cheap hand held game like the stuff you'd get back in the 1980s to kill time for kids.

Why would anyone think they could keep a company relevant in making cheap shit like that? Even blizzard and its micro transactions of mounts, services and pets produces actual gaming content with lore and characters and in depth gameplay.

I'd never thought it come to a day when I could say the company that made some of my fav games of all time, is now worse then a company like blizzard and its small list of games.

[Ferocity]

This news is disgusting really. I'm so tired of gaming shifting to the 'mobile market'. It's a bullshit market that only makes money for people who rip off Candy Crush (which is a rip off). It's sad.

Making games for newer systems becomes infinitely harder than completely impossible, unless you have COLOSSAL budget.

That chase for better graphics and hardware keeps going on only because of big companies like EA, Ubisoft and such. And in order to make up for giant expenses on making such games, they make those games be MAXIMUM mainstream.

People think that all those million-polygonal models with lifelike animations and super-mega-detailed textures everywhere are something trivially easy to make.

[Tech614]

I want to know what cancerous lump on its CEOs brain makes him think mobile gaming is the future. Its a gimmick tied into cheap games made that people don't spend a lot of time or dedication to. I only play a mobile game when in the john, or stood at a bus stop. They have no depth, or story, no soul, is just a cheap hand held game like the stuff you'd get back in the 1980s to kill time for kids.

Why would anyone think they could keep a company relevant in making cheap shit like that? Even blizzard and its micro transactions of mounts, services and pets produces actual gaming content with lore and characters and in depth gameplay.

I'd never thought it come to a day when I could say the company that made some of my fav games of all time, is now worse then a company like blizzard and its small list of games.

Yea you're right blizzard isn't chasing mobile gaming, they're only making bank off a game that can run on a pc, phone, tablet or potato and was made by some interns for basically free.

I forgot, hearthstone gets a pass as a mobile game because it's nerdy and based of nostalgia nerd card games of old.

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Making games for newer systems becomes infinitely harder than completely impossible, unless you have COLOSSAL budget.

That chase for better graphics and hardware keeps going on only because of companies like EA, Ubisoft and such. And in order to make up for giant expenses on making such games, they make those games be MAXIMUM mainstream.

People think that all those million-polygonal models with lifelike animations and super-mega-detailed textures everywhere are something trivially easy to make.

Meanwhile companies like Atlus are successful making console games on cheaper budgets through use of art style to make up for lack of technical impressiveness.

Nobody is forcing you to drop 10s of millions on a game budget but you. If you don't have the market share to support it, don't do.

[Spraxle]

Making games for newer systems becomes infinitely harder than completely impossible, unless you have COLOSSAL budget.

That chase for better graphics and hardware keeps going on only because of big companies like EA, Ubisoft and such. And in order to make up for giant expenses on making such games, they make those games be MAXIMUM mainstream.

People think that all those million-polygonal models with lifelike animations and super-mega-detailed textures everywhere are something trivially easy to make.

That wasn't even my point. But thanks for missing it.

No one who knows anything about video games thinks those games are cheap to make, but they're being made by people doing their job. And a lot of those big budgets go into paying truck loads of money to some actor/actress to VO work. Instead of paying those people shit loads of money and hurting games companies just need to work on their game. People are still going to buy 'big budget' games that don't have 14 actors doing VO.

[Trassk]

Yea you're right blizzard isn't chasing mobile gaming, they're only making bank off a game that can run on a pc, phone, tablet or potato and was made by some interns for basically free.

I forgot, hearthstone gets a pass as a mobile game because it's nerdy and based of nostalgia nerd card games of old.

The point was even with them making hearthstone, which really is just a mobile game even from the start on pc, they still make wow, diablo and starcraft content

[Deleted]

The mobile market is already oversaturated, in a few years it will plummet into obscurity and will be seen as a waste of effort. Or so I hope, then either all these "We'll make mobile games now" companies will come crawling back, or they'll stop making games all together (I can see Konami doing this, atleast for the first few years as they have other revenue streams)

I'd be disappointed tbh, just looking at P.T being the last shrived idea of a great silent hill game now gone.

How far from release was Silent Hills anyway? Was this just a "We scrap the game to be snide" kind of approach because Kojima and Del Toro "left"?

I guess they're going to be a figure of the past. A Relic if you will. What's worse is Konami will take it's ips with them.

Atleast in Videogames, they still got gambling and Yu-Gi-Oh!