Since there's been talk about Konami and how much of a screw-up they've become.

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/18/konami-officially-quits-console-gaming-all-but-one-of-its-future-games-will-be-on-mobile/

An article I read stating they're all-but-completely going Mobile only. Maybe I'll get real lucky and they'll go all-in on providing Kemco with a challenger on regularly churning out half-hearted mobile RPGs every month! I really, really hope not because one company doing this might break my sanity completely, but they could!

There's a part of me saddened by this, as Konami played a big role in my gradual switchover from Atari to Nintendo, as they had a number of good franchises. But as time went on, I kind of faded away from many of them. Castlevania turned into an insipid God of War/Devil May Cry sort of thing; Metal Gear Solid became the most bizarre movie whatsoever...with a stealth game attached from time to time; after two very good installments, Silent Hill decided to see how quickly they could hit rock bottom and a lot of their really arcade-action series (Contra; Gradius) seemed to fade away (at least from my perspective) after the 16-bit days.

Still, I've played a lot of games by them and gotten more mileage out of them than most companies, if we're talking enjoyable man-hours, I would guess.

Comments 4

honestgamer Staff Sep 18, 2015

Konami was responsible for a lot of great games over the years, including the Suikoden series, and Vandal Hearts showed a lot of promise. There is still potential in Gradius and its related branches, and Contra could be a lot more than they've made of it. Even Castlevania has a lot of remaining potential, and Silent Hill was about to come back as something that genuinely seems to have been working for a lot of people. So it is sad.

A bigger concern, perhaps, is the IP that Konami locks up with this move. Konami owns the Hudson IP, as well as its own stuff. There are capable developers--not at Konami anymore, but elsewhere--who could work with those IP and make great things out of them again, but we probably won't see that happen unless someone comes along and buys the brands from Konami... which isn't likely because I think Konami wants to make mobile or pachinko products out of all of them.

I've seen Konami headed in this direction for some time now, and I've been buying digital versions of their games that they have made available on PlayStation Network and Virtual Console, just so I have convenient and legal access to those classics. Konami for the most part hasn't been a relevant content producer for the last few years, but there's still a huge library that provided plenty of great memories during my youth, and for that I am thankful.

joseph_valencia Sep 18, 2015

The recent MGS games (in particular Peace Walker and MGSV) have actually toned down the narrative to gameplay ratio. To see MGS cut down just as it was getting really good is a shame. Hard Corps Uprising was also a great continuation of the Contra brand, but it seems Konami didn't care. I can't even imagine what the long suffering Silent Hill and Suikoden fans are going through.

JoeTheDestroyer Staff Sep 18, 2015

It hurts, Joseph. It hurts...

EmP Staff Sep 19, 2015

In a way, I'm glad Silent Hill has been finally taken outside and shot. It needed putting out of its misery ever since Konami decided the best way to continue the franchise was to farm it out to ridiculously green third-party developers who seemed to learn all they knew about the franchise from Wikipedia.

They can't hurt it anymore. Unless, oh god, they make more mobile games to go alongside the current three.