Goodbye Konami

[Nosebleed]

Something we pretty much all foresaw and was plain as day, but according to reports, Konami is finally ceasing all productions of Triple A titles, except for PES.

With all their major staff leaving and more and more bad rep piling up, this isn't too surprising.

 

What does this mean?

No more Metal Gear Solid, no more Silent Hill, no more anything that made Konami what it once was.

 

Well, I can't say I'm too sad by this considering how Konami's been going lately, but it is still sad to know there is absolutely 0 hope for any of these franchises to continue in the future (which might be for the best in the end).

 

But hey, at least we got pachinko machines amirite?

 

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-18-konami-ceases-triple-a-console-production-on-all-but-pes-report

[Down]

Don't worry, you'll still be able to see all your favorite franchises on pachinko slots!

[Flutterz]

#FucKonami

[Yuuko]

Bai bai!

[Funyarinpa]

HIT

 

THE

 

LEVER

[Darklord Rooke]

PES is their important franchise anyway, so thank God they're still developing that one. FIFA is balls, viva la PES!

[InvictusCobra]

Well, perhaps some will make their own companies and/or take to Kickstarter. Who knows, but I think we haven't seen the last of the talented people who are leaving Konami.

[nohman]

Sad and totally expected.

Still, the article doesn't make it sound like there is zero hope for Konami's big titles in the future - just the foreseeable one. Of course, even if they ever did move back into making triple AAA titles, I don't think I'd ever want to play something like MGS without Kojima's involvement though.

[Deep Blue]

Pachinko HYPE!!!!!!

 

[InvictusCobra]

#FucKonami.  They're dead to me, even if they eventually return to video games.  I will, on principle, avoid anything associated with them after I buy all the MGS games.  Any company that essentially flips the bird to their developers and customers deserves the same treatment.

 

Really sad to see Castlevania and Metal Gear die, though.  Really wish that they'd at least sell them off, but that's not gonna happen, unfortunately.  If only...

 

Well, there's always this and similar endeavours:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/description

[Nosebleed]

While it's great to know the creators of these games are doing other awesome stuff on their own, it still leaves a bitter taste in your mouth to know Konami will keep holding onto franchises that were once great, and they'll likely never hand them over to anyone else, because #FucKonami.

[Mugi]

I've never really been into Silent Hill or MGS, so this hits me a lot less hard than most people. And I don't really care that there aren't going to be any more Castlevania games, because Bloodstained is looking to be good enough on it's own to give me my 'Vania fix. I wish I could say I was surprised, it's only a matter of time until they go out of business. Hopefully sooner than later, so other companies can pick up their IP's. 

[Yatsufusa]

Hard to believe that the same company who brought us amazing games has gone down the shitter. Really fucking sad.

[Rose]

A controversial end that we've been all aware of for a while now, but it was a good ride, just like their last AAA title. I'll still salute you for all these years though.

 

 

You were pretty good.

[Kelebek1]

I think all the games they made were terrible and didn't play any of them, and seemingly many many other people felt the same and with shit sales they folded. Couldn't care less.

[mjriedstra]

One of my proudest accomplishments in my early video game life was beating Super Contra without the cheat for extra lives. I never bought into MGS the way that many seemed to, but there's no denying that it's one of the franchises that shaped the modern console era. It's been sad to watch them decline this way, which means this is probably the right move for everyone.

[babiker]

I thought the most important thing Konami ever did and still does is print muh YuGiOh cards 

[Yatsufusa]

I think all the games they made were terrible and didn't play any of them

[monkeysrumble]

I hope we get to see more spiritual successors to their franchises. I'd at least be happy knowing that some good came out of Konami fucking themselves and everyone around them.

[Redpanda]

No need for the euphemisms or leniency. Not surprised at all given how the company can't even do business properly.

This excellent video by your's truly Jim Sterling looks back at the history of Konami's bad marketing campaign and the horrible PR value that shows how shameless and incompetent Konami truly is.

#FucKonami

 

Past all the hate I have for Konami, here's an outdated but extremely insightful video by possibly one of the smartest video game journalist George Weidman which talks about the whole 'Kojima situation'.

 

And the follow up of the false DMCA take-down of the above video by Konami abusing youtube's lenient rules for censorship.

 

I guess one would say "Oh,the irony!" after all that's happened with or anything related to Konami.

Either way, it makes for a great example of Streisand effect.

[Kelebek1]

lol what

 

I didn't play any recent games (nothing past a PS2/Xbox I could play), but I have played some of their franchises back in that era, and it also doesn't mean I didn't see their newer games. No interest in Metal Gear at all, Silent Hill is terrible, couldn't care less about Pro Evo, don't like Castlevania. Yu-Gi-Oh? Rhythm games? No thanks. I'm looking over the list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Konami_games and there's almost nothing I could describe as even "liking." Turtles In Time is the single game on that list I think. Fair play to them for that, but you need more than 1 good game from 1991 to survive unfortunately.

 

That's just my opinion on it, and I'm just saying that if they really were selling games they shouldn't have needed to fold, so I'm just of the opinion that this is likely due to them not selling games, and personally I entirely understand it as I don't like anything they've made for a very very long time. If they haven't been making anything worth playing in 14 years, well I can't really mind them dying.

[Abyssal Monkey]

Guys don't worry, or rather maybe worry. Konami will make their executive decision in two years to focus on AAA again.

[Funyarinpa]

I didn't play any recent games (nothing past a PS2/Xbox I could play), but I have played some of their franchises back in that era, and it also doesn't mean I didn't see their newer games. No interest in Metal Gear at all, Silent Hill is terrible, couldn't care less about Pro Evo, don't like Castlevania. Yu-Gi-Oh? Rhythm games? No thanks. I'm looking over the list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Konami_games and there's almost nothing I could describe as even "liking." Turtles In Time is the single game on that list I think. Fair play to them for that, but you need more than 1 good game from 1991 to survive unfortunately.

 

That's just my opinion on it, and I'm just saying that if they really were selling games they shouldn't have needed to fold, so I'm just of the opinion that this is likely due to them not selling games, and personally I entirely understand it as I don't like anything they've made for a very very long time. If they haven't been making anything worth playing in 14 years, well I can't really mind them dying.

 

I get that you're uninterested in most Konami games but that doesn't mean they folded because their games didn't sell. For most people, Konami has NUMEROUS good games. Metal Gear and Silent Hill are generally revered series. Castlevania literally coined a game genre. It's incredibly stupid to claim that in your opinion they had one good game and that's why they folded- your opinion doesn't matter to them, the general opinion (sales) does. For most people they're far from not having made anything worth playing in 14 years. 

 

I'm not certain if Konami folded due to unmet sales expectations, but their lack of worthwhile games in the recent years isn't the cause.

[Decay]

Konami isn't folding or going out of business, they're just shifting their business away from AAA console games. That's a pretty big difference. But I guess for our purposes it's functionally the same. 

 

I get that you're uninterested in most Konami games but that doesn't mean they folded because their games didn't sell. For most people, Konami has NUMEROUS good games. Metal Gear and Silent Hill are generally revered series. Castlevania literally coined a game genre. It's incredibly stupid to claim that in your opinion they had one good game and that's why they folded- your opinion doesn't matter to them, the general opinion (sales) does. For most people they're far from not having made anything worth playing in 14 years. 

 

I'm not certain if Konami folded due to unmet sales expectations, but their lack of worthwhile games in the recent years isn't the cause.

[Darklord Rooke]

All he was saying is that they're doing this because the games didn't sell. Sometimes a beloved series that has lots of fans can still sell like crap and be unprofitable. Just look at Mega Man. There is quite seriously no other reason for Konami to shut down AAA game development other than lackluster sales so I don't know why you're contesting this.