sisslethecat
If you’re reading this, I can only assume you know the story or at least the highest profile parts of it. If not, I’ll let Jim Sterling explain it, since he’s at least funny about it.
Over the last few years, Konami has more or less hemorrhaged their best talent. Koji Igarashi (Castlevania), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), Tak Fujii (Blades of Time) and mostly famously Hideo Kojima (and basically everyone who worked with him). With all these people leaving, it’s little wonder why Konami hasn’t really made a game in the last two years. Aside from Super Bomberman R on the Switch, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2017, the company has been more or less completely silent on console games since Metal Gear Survive (a co-op zombie shooter set in the MGS universe) was announced in the middle of last year. This has led a lot of people (including myself) to more or less assume that Konami was out of the game when it came to making console games. A Konami community manager went on record in late 2015 that they were still committed to AAA games, although that feels like a million years ago now.
Well, seems like he might have been on the up-and-up, as recruitment ads have popped up in Japan. Seems that given their lack of in-house talent, they’re looking for some fresh blood, and on top of that they seem to be teasing that they might be using this new talent on some of their most cherished properties.
The ads feature characters from across Konami’s rich library, from Metal Gear, Bomberman, Contra, LovePlus, MLB: Power Pros, and Castlevania. Most of the series featured have been dormant for years (the last Contra game was in 2011, and the last Castlevania in 2014, and so on). Silent Hill, however, is notably absent from both of the promotional images.
Despite all of these familiar faces popping up in the marketing, we have no way of knowing exactly why. It could be showcasing the rich library that a new designer could potentially be helping to bring back to life… or it could just be showing that they’ve done stuff. Currently, Konami is looking for Game Programmers, Designers, Planners, Network Engineers, Server Programmers, Scenario Writers, and developers with either home console or mobile experience. The use of ‘console’ is a good sign, although being followed up by “or mobile” isn’t so much.
It remains to be seen what all this could mean. At the very least, it seems like it could be a good sign, but given Konami’s alleged reputation with their treatment of employees, it might be a tall order trying to find anyone willing to join up with them these days. Guess we’ll find out. We’ll keep you updated, but for the moment the most we can look forward to is the animated Castlevania Netflix series, due out sometime this year.
[Source]
