The writing has been on the wall for Konami’s console output for a while and now two reports, both of which have been corroborated by Eurogamer, suggest that all AAA game production has ceased, apart from PES.
The company has been moving towards mobile gaming for a good while and recent restructures have seen the departure of big players such as Kojima, and today the worldwide technology director, Julien Merceron has left the company. He was primarily in charge of Fox Engine.
Konami have said they have further plans for the Metal Gear series but we assume that will mean iOS games from now on. The same can be said for Silent Hill, Winning Eleven, Gradius, Castlevania, Zone of Enders, No More Heroes, and Bomberman.
Konami PR is refusing to comment on the matter at present. Metal Gear Online will not be affected and will launch next month after a delay. To read more about Konami’s decline, check out our feature.
Eldave0
With the Metal Gear Solid series all wrapped up I doubt anyone will give a crap.
The Lone Steven
Date of death: 18th September 2015.
Reason: Turned away from the market that they made their name in and burned and crashed in the mobile gaming market.
They’re dead. They have a massive back catalogue of games that would sell well if developed correctly and they just ignored that. Sure, MGS wouldn’t have had much enjoyment post Kojima but they could open it up to a new generation of gamers. Castlevania, that is dead but if they had invested properly in the franchise and went back to it’s roots, lots of profits for them! Contra would be very popular on PSN and XBL along with Steam.
Instead, they have elected to take a risky(which they most likely believe is the safest) venture into mobile gaming. They have no foothold in it and a triple A publisher means jack **** in that market. If they are hoping to match Game of War’s daily intake of millions of dollars. They are mistaken as I can see them trying to half ass everything, fill it to the brim with microtransactions before crashing and burning. Hell, even EA knew that microtransaction mobile games were a bad idea and that took just one game to flop. Konami, I suspect will go “Lalalalala” when they don’t get the results they want.
Also, PES against FIFA? PES,which doesn’t seem to get that much support up against Fifa that EA throws everything they have at it and is very popular. They are hoping to make a lot of profit on PES.
It’s PES. I mean, yeah, there is a market for football but FIFA has that cornered. EA has that cornered and EA can afford to up the budget whenever it feels like it. Konami, kinda can’t as they have £80 million to recover from MGS5 just to break even. I suspect £80million is more of a goal for EA then a budget.
beeje13
PES is actually very popular around the world, Asia and South America particularly. It’s not on he same level as Fifa of course, I agree, but add to the much lower budget, and it actually being decent these days, means it does make sense to keep it.
Advanced Imouto
Don’t think that Konami’s already dead. Their other gaming business has been doing quite well in recent years.
Kennykazey
Hopefully they’ll be sensible enough to lend out or sell their IPs to other developers.
Mick939
Did it need “with the exception of pes”
Tuffcub
Er yes? Cos they’re still making that?
Light Liguria
With Japan picking up more games on Mobile, its not all surprising.
CrawFail
So what about Fox Engine?
In a way I’m glad they’ve gone. The gaming world will probably be better without them at this point. It’s not like they were making good decisions or games lately.
The Lone Steven
Either it’ll be bastardised to be used for mobile gaming or just left to rot but considering it must have cost them a lot of cash for Kojima Productions to create with the intention of it being the default engine for Konami, I suspect they’ll do the former.
CrawFail
It’s a brilliant engine too. I can also see them just wiping it under the rug along with any sort of pride or dignity they ever had.
DividSmythe
It’s a shame really but as long as they keep up PES now it’s gone back great again.
JoeBoi
Wow.
Didn’t think they’d completely do away with AAA titles. Especially metal gear :(. Sad day for gaming.
TSBonyman
It’s a shame to lose a long time console game developer but given the recent distasteful hooha between them and Kojima and the exposure on how they seemingly treat their staff, i don’t think many people will be feeling generous towards them.