Konami officially pulling out of releasing console games.

[Otaking]

Konami announce they will be concentrating fully on mobile games.
I know everyone saw this coming but now it's official.
http://jin115.com/archives/52080348.html

"We will pursue mobile games aggressively," says Konami's new CEO Hayakawa in an interview with Nikkei Trendy Net.

"Our main platform will be mobiles. Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like "items" to selling things like "features."

"We saw with these games that even people who buy physical games are motivated to buy extra content. The success of Power pro especially has motivated us to actively push more of our popular series onto mobile than ever before."

"Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies."

"We hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too."

"With multiplatform games, there's really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world."

[NecroPhile]

Fuck 'em.  With any luck, maybe they'll license their goodies to competent developers for consoles and/or pc.

[cjameslv]

Man it's not gonna be long before physical copies of games are gone completely.

[SignOfZeta]

I can't say I remember the last time I bought something from them, but it's sad to see them go. Sad and also...just weird. It wasn't that long ago that they were kicking ass on a global level with Beamani games, Castlevania, Suikoden, etc.

I guess, if you thinking about it, they more or less stopped releasing anything that wasn't Silent Hill or Metal Gear, building their company around it more or less, and when the wind changed direction the whole thing fell apart.

I don't quite get why they bought Hudson though...they went from expansion to dissolution in less than three years. Kinda shows a lack of long term planning.

[Gentlegamer]

Goodbye Konami, I'll always remember the good times.

[DragonmasterDan]

It's sad. They're historically my favorite third party console game publisher. From the 8-32 bit eras they consistently made the best third party titles. Even on the PSP I consistently found myself tracking down Konami products.

[Otaking]

Personally I think this is beginning of the end of big software publishers.
I think in the future, games development teams will be directly crowd funded by fans similar to what's happened with:

Capcom > Keiji Inafune > http://www.mightyno9.com/

Rare > Playtonic Games > https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playtonic/yooka-laylee-a-3d-platformer-rare-vival

Konami > Koji Igarashi > https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night

Just watched the new Happy Console Gamer video and he says a similar thing.

[PCEngineHell]

Konami has been busy digging themselves into a hole for awhile now. If this had happened like back in 2003 or sometime prior I'd be like wtf and feel kinda sad. But the Konami of 2015? No fucks given.

[ccovell]

Man it's not gonna be long before physical copies of games are gone completely.

Well, to paraphrase Larry Ellison: "We're putting bits into boxes, and shipping them around the world?!?"

One good thing about digital downloads is at least inefficiency and wastefulness get reduced...

[Gentlegamer]

Man it's not gonna be long before physical copies of games are gone completely.

Well, to paraphrase Larry Ellison: "We're putting bits into boxes, and shipping them around the world?!?"

One good thing about digital downloads is at least inefficiency and wastefulness get reduced...

In other news, Microsoft has revealed it has the ability to not just ban your online account, but remotely brick your console.

And this is a common ability, Sony and Nintendo can do the same thing. Do you want to put your games (and they *are* your games) at the mercy of someone else?

[o.pwuaioc]

It's easy. Stop playing modern games. They're all shit anyway.

It's sad. They're historically my favorite third party console game publisher. From the 8-32 bit eras they consistently made the best third party titles. Even on the PSP I consistently found myself tracking down Konami products.

Same here, though not that late. Konami definitely won my heart in the 8/16 bit era, less so in the 32 bit era, and even less afterward. Still that 16 bit Konami jingle always let me know I was about play something really, really good.

[SuperGrafx]

Well, this is never a good thing to see.
But seeing as I've stayed away from the modern gen of games, it doesn't really impact me. 

Konami was certainly a powerhouse during the 8 and 16 bit eras though

[thesteve]

if they start remote bricking systems it will finely put an end to their ability to sell the systems for top$

[technozombie]

It's kind a weird state to be in where I've always thought of myself, and been thought of by others as the "gamer" and now more and more companies aren't making games for me. Mobile games, by nature of the controls, just aren't as good and yet that is where the money is I guess.

[Psycho Punch]

It's easy. Stop playing modern games. They're all shit anyway.

/znZK6Tk.gif

[o.pwuaioc]

I don't even know what game that is but I can tell it's a shit game. Nobey? No way!

[ToyMachine78]

There is no need for publishers now. Same is true for music. You can code/record it yourself now for cheaper, as long As you find a distribution outlet like amazon or kickstarter.

 Edit: books too . there is so much direct distribution now.

[PCEngineHell]

I don't even know what game that is but I can tell it's a shit game. Nobey? No way!

It's Art of Fighting for the NeoGeo.

[Psycho Punch]

Yakuza is one of the best game series from the late and current gen... you don't know what you're missing  . It's OK to nobey sometimes, as Johnny Turbo would demonstrate by working with SEGA after TTi closed shop.

[o.pwuaioc]

I do some modern nobey, but much less than the glory years, and mostly games that still capture that classic aesthetic (shooters, 2D platformers, even Civ 5 isn't fundamentally "modern" in mechanics). I've found these 3D action games to be very boring, and Yakuza looks like more of the same.

[Mathius]

Mobile gaming has turned real games into vending machine products. The least amount of product using the cheapest ingredients possible just to keep our fingers busy for a short amount of time.

Dammit Konami. Just dammit.

[slinkyturd]

Downloadable content and the necessity of internet access for your console has killed home console gaming. It's so bad at this point that all the consoles are so terrible no one wants to actually buy them. It used to be that you would know exactly what console you wanted and you knew you'd be happy with that decision. It's a big damn mess cause really, other than a giant relief to the weight of your wallet, what is the difference between last gen and current gen systems? Not a whole damn much. It's stagnant and nothing actually innovative is coming out, just gimmicks that will be short lived and soon forgotten.

Spend $400 for a new system and a single game to get what? a weeks worth of pleasure before you own that game (figuratively)?

Spend $30-$60 on a 16 bit era system and the rest of that $400 on a pile of games for a year's worth of fun. Or spend less than $150 for the system and the everdrive and the rest on hookers and blow.

This really is a no brainer! It's sad how this industry has crumbled and fallen to the shell of itself that it now is.

[TR0N]

Konami announce they will be concentrating fully on mobile games.
I know everyone saw this coming but now it's official.
http://jin115.com/archives/52080348.html

"We will pursue mobile games aggressively," says Konami's new CEO Hayakawa in an interview with Nikkei Trendy Net.

"Our main platform will be mobiles. Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like "items" to selling things like "features."

"We saw with these games that even people who buy physical games are motivated to buy extra content. The success of Power pro especially has motivated us to actively push more of our popular series onto mobile than ever before."

"Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies."

"We hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too."

"With multiplatform games, there's really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world."

Those men in the ivory tower have clearly lost it.Then again it seems most japanese developers are out of touch with gamers.Going from snkplaymore,sega,nintendo among others have jumped on the mobile gaming bandwagon.I can't say of blame then again it is profitable but i still find it to be a disappointment.Once MGSV comes out that will be the last game id buy from konami.I could care less there will be focusing more on mobile gaming and i hope they lose money on it but i doubt it.

[glazball]

The Dude: "That's a .... bummer man.  That's a bummer"

I was hoping this wouldn't happen too, but alas...  you'll be missed Konami.  Played Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on PS3 earlier this year and loved it.  I guess Metal Gear Solid V will be our last hurrah.

Fuck mobile gaming.  Fuck mobile gaming in the ass.

[ClodBusted]

I once tried the Lords of Shadow demo on Xbox 360, but returned to Drac X on the Wii in the end. I think the fact that I want instant action and simple controls from a Castlevania from the second when I turn the game on is what killed my interest in LoS.

Repost from Nightwolve:

Cleaning house, making way for "Konami: International Gambling Masters." ;)

[slinkyturd]

The 2 Castlevanias on PS2 are 3d but both awesome in their own right.

[TR0N]

The Dude: "That's a .... bummer man.  That's a bummer"

I was hoping this wouldn't happen too, but alas...  you'll be missed Konami.  Played Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on PS3 earlier this year and loved it.  I guess Metal Gear Solid V will be our last hurrah.

Fuck mobile gaming.  Fuck mobile gaming in the ass.

You mean fuck japan right  Consoles in japan are becoming irrelevant and mobile gaming has become popular,that's why japanese developers are jumping on the bandwagon.

[Dicer]

Good riddance to the Hudson killers...

[glazball]

You mean fuck japan right  Consoles in japan are becoming irrelevant and mobile gaming has become popular,that's why japanese developers are jumping on the bandwagon.

Ha, I love Japanese games.  Though iirc, Lords of Shadow was developed in Spain and I always thought it had a certain Pan's Labyrinth vibe to it.  Both are highly underrated.

I don't care where the games come from though, as long as they are solid.  I just want to play them on a console, with 7.1 sound and sharp graphics <insert Tim the Tool Man grunt here>, on a couch in my home, not on a tiny ass screen like a 5-grader at recess.

Why Konami, why??

[cr8zykuban0]

r.i.p. konami.

mobile games aren't the future, its the path to their destruction

[CrackTiger]

Good riddance to the Hudson killers...

They didn't kill Hudson. Hudson at the time was doing what Konami is about to.

The Hudson Soft we love was gone long before.

[Dicer]

Good riddance to the Hudson killers...

They didn't kill Hudson. Hudson at the time was doing what Konami is about to.

The Hudson Soft we love was gone long before.

They acquired the company for what, to do fuck all with any and all of the IP, save for a shitty mobile bomberman puzzle game...

Why bother?

[NecroPhile]

They acquired the company for what, to do fuck all with any and all of the IP, save for a shitty mobile bomberman puzzle game...

Why bother?

So they can make Bomberman themed pachinko machines?

[DragonmasterDan]

Good riddance to the Hudson killers...

They didn't kill Hudson. Hudson at the time was doing what Konami is about to.

The Hudson Soft we love was gone long before.

They acquired the company for what, to do fuck all with any and all of the IP, save for a shitty mobile bomberman puzzle game...

Why bother?

I think they used Hudson's already well developed resources in the mobile business to more firmly entrench themselves into the mobile game/app market.

[Mathius]

Probably similar to Square-Enix's acquisition of Taito. Just so peeps can play Space Invaders on their silly touch screens.

[DragonmasterDan]

Probably similar to Square-Enix's acquisition of Taito. Just so peeps can play Space Invaders on their silly touch screens.

Enix bought Taito shortly after they meged with/acquired Square. Long before the mobile market was a developed market for gaming.

[jlued686]

Well, this is interesting. A survey about which games you'd like to see Konami make.

http://mobilesurvey.blicx.com/?



They also ask if there are any other Konami properties you'd like to see. I made sure to start with Hudson titles like Bonk and Adventure Island.

[EmperorIng]

It's nice to see Konami letting the fans participate in the pachinko-machine-making process.

[MotherGunner]

To Konami, I say Pachinko Tu Madre!

[NightWolve]

It's easy. Stop playing modern games. They're all shit anyway.

/znZK6Tk.gif

It's old, but props for my laugh of the day! Somehow I missed this thread when Konami was the buzz in the news media. I see Konami Kat the jerk made it into the thread also. Heh.

[PukeSter]

This will be Capcom in a few years time. They have barely any money left, making only a few okay games a year.

Like Konami had to rely on Metal Gear and Silent Hill, Capcom now relies on the annual Monster Hunter and Street Fighter.

[Mathius]

I filled out that survey so thanks for posting it. In the comments section I made sure to argue the idea of changing the Konami logo back to its classic style. I mentioned that the old logo was just as important as the Coca-Cola, Nintendo, and Capcom logos. And that you don't see those companies messing around with theirs. And for good reason which to you guys I'm sure is obvious.

[HailingTheThings]

Filling out survey now. :3

More Rocket Knight, please?

[GreatBlue Swirlof99]

Oh well, the industry is digging its own grave! Capcom is messing around and f*cked up, SE has been making horrible FF games(look at 15 just LOOK!) , SEGA, oh dear SEGA I don't care about SE Or Konami but why? Sonic boom mobile gaming when you made some of my favorite games during the Dreamcast era (hell in 3/4 years you made better games than the sony corp has been in 20 years  now you make sh1tty pachinko machines, what the hell?!) and now freaking what? Sonic 4 ep 2 on IPad just disgraceful SEGA! I just give up on gaming as a whole except Nintendo of course, they actually make good games!     I miss the days of GOOD games! There my rant about this sh1t!

[Opethian]

they had a good run

if they only had to power to flip their backcatalog of game they would still be around
if only...

[GreatBlue Swirlof99]

they had a good run

if they only had to power to flip their backcatalog of game they would still be around
if only...

Konami should hire this guy, he actually has a good idea how to make money!

[NightWolve]

Had to put these together. Hahahaha!