sisslethecat
Another day, another news story about Konami. Over the past few months the company’s future with its most loved franchises, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania and most relevant to us – Silent Hill, have been in a sort of limbo. It’s hard to know what to believe at the moment, with reports pointing to all sorts of different things going on within the company. Orwellian abuse of their employees, a higher up on a mad power trip, and most recently a rumor pointing to a total departure from AAA console game development in favor of Pachislot machines and mobile gaming.
Well, according to Konami’s UK Community Manager Graham Day in an interview with Game On Daily at the very least that last one isn’t true.
“Don’t believe everything you read in the press. Things have been taken out of context but that’s never changed, just because mobile gaming has been embraced, that doesn’t mean everything else has to quit. Konami has a history of making the best games around and that is something that will continue. That won’t change anything going forward. So people should believe in Konami, and if I was to use a tagline, PES 2016’s tagline is ‘Love the past, play the future.’ And that is there for a reason. The future isn’t ending now. The future has a long, long way.”
That’s something at least, although it doesn’t wrap up any of the other accusations that have been leveled at the company. Konami has lost several of its most talented and influential developers over the past few years, with the loss of Hideo Kojima seeming to be a final nail in the coffin. While Konami has marketed several of its past titles out to third party studios with the last handful of Silent Hill titles and Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, it’s worth noting that those have been fairly controversial games.
Currently the only AAA console games Konami is actively supporting are the recently released Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and PES 2016, which while both received rave reviews, both have also been under scrutiny for cut content and shady sales tactics in that order. As for Silent Hill and Castlevania, while Konami has only made vague promises of a commitment to continuing to release “products” affiliated with those franchises and have since been working on Pachislot machines for both that… well, haven’t been exactly what fans of either franchise wanted.
We shall see soon enough whether Konami’s plans for the future of AAA will include the creepier side of their properties.
[Source]
