Konami calls it quits on AAA console games

[Hellravager]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/18/k...s-reports-say/

Konami is shutting down much of its AAA console-game development for the foreseeable future, according to a report on French site Gameblog (as translated by Eurogamer). The only two franchises on Konami's AAA plate are Metal Gear Online and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016. Otherwise, there are no plans to develop additional Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania or other AAA games at Konami, the site says. An additional report on Gameblog claims that Konami Worldwide Technical Director and head of the studio's Fox Engine, Julien Merceron, has left the company. We've reached out to Konami for clarification. These reports play into recent rumblings of unrest at Konami and a shift toward mobile-game development, following a series of odd events at the studio.

One of the first signs of turmoil at Konami came when it canceled Silent Hills, a game that received a ton of positive hype after the release of its teaser, PT, in 2014. It was a collaboration between famed horror-movie director Guillermo del Toro and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, starring The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus. Konami never officially announced the cancelation, though del Toro and Reedus have both said it's canned.

Second, Kojima himself appears to be on the outs at Konami and he's expected to cut ties with the studio now that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is out. Kojima's name was removed from the box art for Metal Gear Solid V along with the logo for his studio, Kojima Productions. Plus, it seems that Metal Gear Solid V was originally intended to include a third chapter and more content in general. Konami has recently pledged to focus on mobile development, which ties into the "no more AAA" reports this week.

[Graeham]

Ugh. I really don't understand the obsession with 'mobile gaming' though I suppose it is rather profitable given the way in which today's society operates. So many people seem to be glued to their phones these days...

[Granyala]

LoL mobile gaming.
More smartphone zombies staring at their screens running against lanterns.

[Kaleredar]

Ugh. I really don't understand the obsession with 'mobile gaming' though I suppose it is rather profitable given the way in which today's society operates. So many people seem to be glued to their phones these days...

Cost-benefit analysis. AAA games take hundreds of artists, programmers and production coordinators to manage the pipeline, on top of years of development time.


Mobile games take a mere fraction of that and can, in many ways, make just as much money. Or at least, when you crank out a fuck ton of them.

[Zantos]

Mobile gaming can just die off. Seriously. Phones are not full scale gaming devices. Sure, they have some fun ones, but really, invest in a hand held system. Something that can have the power behind it to pull of mobile gaming.

[Tech614]

Ugh. I really don't understand the obsession with 'mobile gaming' though I suppose it is rather profitable given the way in which today's society operates. So many people seem to be glued to their phones these days...

You should blame Kojima and other eastern developers that never learned to keep projects under budget in the transition to HD AAA gaming. This is the reason the capcom, sega and konami's of the world are no longer relevant in the gaming industry. This is the reason they have turned to mobile and other outlets using their IPs to make money.

[apples]

wait a minute

a game developer is going to stop developing the most stolen and risky to make type of game in favor of the vastly, vastly, more profitable mobile market?

thats crazy!

[Tech614]

Mobile gaming can just die off. Seriously. Phones are not full scale gaming devices. Sure, they have some fun ones, but really, invest in a hand held system. Something that can have the power behind it to pull of mobile gaming.

You mean like the 3DS which is about as strong as an iphone 2? LMAO.

[Deleted]

Its risk vs reward AAA game, spend loots of money and then you have to wait years until you can sell the game and you can get your the money back + profit if your game did not bomb.

Mobile game, spend a smale amount of money, get the mony back + profit within months, you can survive if the game bomb.

[Teaon]

You should blame Kojima and other eastern developers that never learned to keep projects under budget in the transition to HD AAA gaming. This is the reason the capcom, sega and konami's of the world are no longer relevant in the gaming industry. This is the reason they have turned to mobile and other outlets using their IPs to make money.

you should blame the one who forced metal gear games to be exclusive on playstation, or gamecube, or whatever.

now that got broken, lets see how much mgsv sell, it will prolly break 10m now

[Zantos]

You mean like the 3DS which is about as strong as an iphone 2? LMAO.

I love my new 3ds man. Last I checked, an iphone cannot do 3d. Point is, invest in hand held gaming devices. They are improving. However, nintendo has a pretty strong grip on it at this moment in time.

[Deleted]

Psh, who needs AAA games. I mean, just think about it, on one hand you have:

"I MUST BE FORGOTTEN! If the world's ever to live free of the tyranny of fear, they must never know what was done here today. Tell them only ... the Lich King is dead ... and that Bolvar Fordragon died with him. Now go -- leave this place and never return!"


and on the other one:


"***BLING!!*** Congratulations! You just harvested a Scrubbyfruit! You got an extra Gold Gem(TM) as a reward! Wow! You have three Gold Gems(TM)! With only two more, you could buy a better tractor! Buy two more Gold Gems(TM) for $2.99?"



I mean, what would you prefer? Frankly, isn't it a nobrainer? Quick entertainment, instant-gratification, and you can progress without spending a dime, after all!

[Pull My Finger]

I can understand them. Super-expensive and takes long periods of time to make, gets pirated to no end, and if the game ends up not doing well, your millions and years of development time are straight down the toilet.

But it doesn't matter. AAA games have been complete bullshit and a travesty for years. Obscenely expensive entertainment for intellectual amebae, really.

[unbound]

Ugh. I really don't understand the obsession with 'mobile gaming' though I suppose it is rather profitable given the way in which today's society operates. So many people seem to be glued to their phones these days...

You answered your own question. Mobile is attractive because it is much cheaper to develop for and the micro-transaction market is much bigger on mobile (in general) than on PC or console.

It isn't the first time that industry has shifted to what is profitable. There were a lot of wonderful genres of games back in the 90s that don't really exist anymore today because many developers just jumped into sports games and first person shooters and with big profits at that time sucked in other development teams (via mergers) which eliminated old genres. No matter what a corporation tells you, profits are first and product integrity will always play 2nd fiddle.

You are seeing the same thing at Blizz. They are consistently cutting the budget for WoW as they focus on higher return games, and their design is focused on strongly encouraging micro-transactions with their newer games (e.g. try playing Hearthstone from scratch right now, no matter how you configure basic cards, you'll be obliterated consistently by the impact of raid cards and cards from TGT which will either make you drop the game, or buy a lot of cards to try to keep up...you would realistically need several months of play without paying cash to get enough cards / dust to be competitive).

This is corporate reality. Many corporations shipped jobs oversees not because they were losing money, but simply to become even more profitable. Many times the quality of the product dropped, but the consumer didn't complain enough, so the top executives just laughed all the way to the bank. Software corporations are no different.

[Usagi Senshi]

You mean like the 3DS which is about as strong as an iphone 2? LMAO.

*looks at the vastly superior game library of the DS and 3DS*

You were saying what again?

[Deleted]

#FucKonami.

[Tech614]

*looks at the vastly superior game library of the DS and 3DS*

You were saying what again?

And that is relevant to pointing out the fail in his "handheld systems having real power" comment how?

The 3DS has no power. It's a technological midget.

[derpkitteh]

we need to fucking go back in time and punch steve jobs in the throat for making smart phones.

fuck this shit. fuck mobile games >:/

[dokilar]

Psh, who needs AAA games. I mean, just think about it, on one hand you have:

"I MUST BE FORGOTTEN! If the world's ever to live free of the tyranny of fear, they must never know what was done here today. Tell them only ... the Lich King is dead ... and that Bolvar Fordragon died with him. Now go -- leave this place and never return!"


and on the other one:


"***BLING!!*** Congratulations! You just harvested a Scrubbyfruit! You got an extra Gold Gem(TM) as a reward! Wow! You have three Gold Gems(TM)! With only two more, you could buy a better tractor! Buy two more Gold Gems(TM) for $2.99?"



I mean, what would you prefer? Frankly, isn't it a nobrainer? Quick entertainment, instant-gratification, and you can progress without spending a dime, after all!

thats pretty funny, but sadly its also got a bit of truth to it

[Tabrotar]

And because something to play is "inferior" to another thing means the "superior" thing has the better games? Yeah right of course so where can i buy the shit you smoke? Must be some highly effective stuff.