Konami has ceased all triple-A console game production on everything but Pro Evolution Soccer and there are currently no plans for a big new Metal Gear game, while worldwide technology director Julien Merceron has left the company. That’s according to a pair of reports on French site Gameblog. Eurogamer understands both reports to be true.
Problems at Konami were highlighted earlier in the year when Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima left the company and his Kojima Productions studio was dissolved. He had reportedly fallen out with Konami’s big bosses who refused to bankroll his long and lavish productions any longer. Metal Gear Solid 5 reportedly cost $80m to make. Any new Metal Gear Solid game Konami produces will presumably be made without Kojima involved.
Further problems at Konami were highlighted when respected financial Japanese newspaper Nikkei ran an article about a deteriorating company culture at Konami’s game division. Employees “deemed useless” were apparently given menial and degrading tasks, and communication with outsiders was restricted and lunch breaks monitored.
What comes next for Konami, and for Kojima, we’ll have to wait and see.
FUCK
No new Castlevania, Contra, Metal Gear, Suikoden, Goemon or Rocket Knight games on console? Good game, guys. Thanks for the memories.
THIS GENERATION IS THE BEST, CAN’T WAIT FOR ALL THESE UPCOMING MOBILE GAMES FROM KONAMI AND NINTENDO
Isn’t $80m fairly “standard” for big games now days? I mean that doesn’t excuse Kojipro going over their budget but Konami did get an in house engine and 2 games out of it, unless I’m mistaken.
Konami has spent an entire generation burying that series. Maybe Hideo’s take on SH would have been good, but it would never have been as good as a Team Silent game.
(Konami fucking over its employees has been constant public news recently, so this isn’t surprising.)
Oh well. The only Konami games I’ve ever cared about personally were Castlevania, Silent Hill, Rocket Knight and maybe Suikoden and Contra and I’m at least still getting a version of the first one through Bloodstained thanks to Kickstarter.
I wonder if a new Silent Hill-esque game could get funded on there like how Castlevania-esque game easily was. Hmmmm…
Regardless, it seems like a better question would be to ask what Japanese game company isn’t failing or being assholish to its employees at this point between this, SNK and arguably Capcom having issues. Surely more than Nintendo and Arc Systems (and Namco?) are doing well, right?
P.S. We were probably never getting another Rocket Knight game anyway unfortunately.
That’s $180 million if they are all full-priced, which they most likely are since it just came out a couple of weeks ago. If that’s just physical copies and not digital copies, that’s a fuckload of money they’ve made in just a couple of weeks. They have recouped their losses. I don’t even know if these include the special editions which are even more money.
I’m okay with never buying another Konami game again. I’m loving MGSV (even though I wish it were more like the first three incarnations than Peace Walker) and they’ve made some great games, but fuck it. After they cancelled Silent Hills, which was STACKED AS FUCK with talent, I gave up any hope.
SH2 is my personal favorite in the series. It’s one of, if not the best horror game I’ve ever played. I played through it on a weekend with stormy and fucked up weather which just added to the crazy atmosphere of the game.
I wish the HD collection wasn’t fucked up and had SH1 and 4.
Silent Hill 1-3 were great, but it needed an overhaul on the combat system and just general movement. I think Kojima would have fixed that. Along with Guillermo del Toro behind him, it could have been a damn great game.
Saw this coming a mile away. Shame considering how many great titles are in Konami’s portfolio and they are now going to be either free to play mobile or a pachinko machine.
