Konami - We Hardly Knew Ye - The Bear and Badger

retroking1981

We've all heard about Hideo Kojima leaving Konami but there are now rumours that Silent Hills has been cancelled.

What happened to Konami?

It seems that they are now primarily a fitness company in Japan, they run gyms or something along those lines and after that just like Sega Sammy most of their revenue comes from pachinko machines.

All they really have of relevance in the world of gaming is MG and PES. All their other (great) franchises failed to grow in line with development costs. They also own all of Hudsons IPs, Bomberman etc.

They'll be fine as a company as video games are just small part of their business now.

Do you think they'll sell their IPs? As bulk or individually?

optimark_prime

Gaming has changed, and it appears that Nintendo are the only Japanese games company that has managed to continue as usual.

A real shame.

Blocks100

Paul the sparky

When was the last Bomberman?

Are there any new Castlevania games on the horizon?

Bollockoff

The rumour was that they're taking the P.T. demo off PSN by the 29th. It's not totally indicative of cancellation. You'l still be able to download it ever after if it's on your DL list as well.

acemuzzy

That goes for people without ps4s I guess - worth "buying" via the Web store in case you ever get one.

Bollockoff

I think Koj is really breaking or has broken the Konami bank with MGSV. Even if Jack Bauer was on discount because he's a drunken Hollywood exile.

hunk

I miss the old konami.

Bollockoff

Those guns just look like anal beads.

hunk

What's an a-
Wait never mind, thanks for ruining my childhood!

Yossarian

Paul the sparky wrote:

When was the last Bomberman?

There was an XBLA version, so it was at some point in the last 10 or 15 years.

retroking1981

Konami was easily one of my favourite developers in the 80s/90s.

Outside of MG & the odd PES I don't think I've owned a game developed by them since the PS/N64 generation.

I got Lords of Shadows but that was outsourced to Mercury Steam.

Diluted Dante

2010 the XBLA Bomberman I believe.

Verecocha

No it's over in terms of Guillermo Del Toro's involvement with Silent Hill. He announced it earlier. Crying shame.

Moot_Geeza

I think Konami struggled with the move to 3D far more than, say, Capcom. Metal Gear Solid was sublime, but by the time the sequel arrived there were cracks appearing in in the controls when compared to the best of the competition. What I played of 4 was a joke in terms of mechanics, it was like an HD update of something a generation out of date. They aced it for a while with Iss/Pro Evo, but it became stagnant after many good years. Obviously there are exceptions (Z.O.E has its fans, Silent Hill still seems to attract a following), but for non Metal Gear enthusiasts the list of excellent post 16-bit Konami games is quite small for a company we're all fond of. The industry (and the tastes of consumers) moved too quickly for them and they failed to adapt.

TheDJR

Pro Evo never successfully made the jump to 360/PS3, any good iterations have come way too late.

Bollockoff

They're only allowed to implode after Phantom Pain comes out.

adkm1979

Pro Evolution Soccer on PS4 is great, but only if you ignore absolutely everything about it except the gameplay (and even then some of the controls seem a bit obtuse). The presentation, except perhaps the very top level menu screen, is utterly tosh. I think someone on here compared it to a 90s DVD player menu, and that was spot on.

The thing is, in this day and age, I think those things are more important to a western audience than Konami realise. Poorly animated, naively charming celebrations are almost forgivable in your average Japanese fictional sporting tournament, but when it's supposed to be Premiere League players in a Premiere League fixture, it's really jarring.

Metal Gear Solid is obviously popular with its fans, but to me it has been an increasingly ludicrous joke and, crucially for Konami, increasingly opaque and indecipherable to outsiders, increasingly less likely to buy each iteration. While this is true of many franchises, others seem to have a degree of reinvention likely to attract new players.

A look at Konami's output tells you that they've been overly-reliant on ageing IPs for too long. Dance Dance Revolution, beatmania, Silent Hill, Castlevania, as well as PES and MGS all felt like they stopped being relevant at least a decade ago.

davyK

Konami was a mark of greatness on the SNES.

[Deleted User]

Trufax: Axelay, Contra, Pop n Twinbee, Super Castlevania, Geoman Warrior, Gradiuis....just off the top of my head. They really were a top-tier studio back in the day.

adkm1979

That's twenty years ago, though.

viceview51

Not too worried about Konami, really. Just want to know when will Nintendo step up and save Silent Hill and if not maybe Sony...

Bollockoff

Valve.

Bollockoff

Telltale.

Bollockoff

Zynga.

[Deleted User]

Facebook.

retroking1981

Thats the thing, as a company they're in good health but we're gamers not Japanese gym members with a gambling problem.

Could they realistically throw the towel in on gaming and sell their IPs? Or are MG and PES still an easy guatentee of profits? Will that comtinue to be the case in the wake of Kojimas exit?

Vela

Just sell all their old IP to wayforward. Contra, castlevania and bomberman.

Konami are dead as far as gaming goes now, like much of the industry classics it's all about mobile free to scam shit.

hylian_elf

Bomberman is Konami IP?? Did they buy Hudson soft at some point?

retroking1981

hylian_elf wrote:

Bomberman is Konami IP?? Did they buy Hudson soft at some point?

Yep. in 2012.

Vela

hylian_elf wrote:

Bomberman is Konami IP?? Did they buy Hudson soft at some point?

Yep. It's a fucking disgrace too.

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