Konami ceases triple-A console production on all but PES

Eurogamer:
Konami has ceased all triple-A console game production on everything but Pro Evolution Soccer and there are currently no plans for a big new Metal Gear game, while worldwide technology directr Julien Merceron has left the company. That's according to a pair of reports on French site Gameblog. Eurogamer understands both reports to be true.

Gameblog wrote yesterday that Merceron was apparently unhappy with Konami's transition away from the console market towards mobile games.

Beyond Metal Gear Online - the separate online component to Metal Gear Solid 5 that is currently being finished - and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016, Konami has a blank triple-A slate. It does however have the licence to the football tournament Euro 2016, so we'd expect it to make use of that.

[Jimboms]

I'm really over PES

[NewMonday]

why don't they just sell the IPs then?

[Somebody]

So they can milk them dry later on in other forms like pachinko/slot machines, arcade machines and mobile versions.

[_-EDMIX-_]

mobile.

[RiPPn]

So sell the ip's with a clause that they can use the properties for anything that isn't computer game related as long as what they release doesn't hurt the ip.

[Double_O_Revan]

Prepare for MGS mobile games as well as others from their IP list.

[UltraNova]

Metal Gear Solid: The Mobile Pain coming right up...

Ohh Konami how you have fallen...

[sinspirit]

I really can't understand why they wouldn't at least make a full remake of the original games. The Konami name benefits from these huge AAA games branding their name. Eventually, this will hurt them.

[RedDevils]

I wouldn't be surprise Konami will go bankrupt in the near future. Abandoning it core will only bit them in the ass later on

[SolidStoner]

Kojima productions could buy rights for MGS from Konami.. or make something similar like Fallout series did.. original people got back to the core and made Wasteland 2.. this is what we need...

I will be very sad if I see a MGS mobile game.. and so on.. its like taking Ferrari brand and make only vacuum cleaners named "Ferrari vacuum" wow.. how exiting!

[Magicite]

mobile...ugh

[3-4-5]

* Prediction:

Konami goes mostly mobile to get money.

It doesn't work out as well as intended and they don't get the support they thought they would.

They linger around for a few years and eventually jump back into console gaming with the PS5/next xbox/ Nintendo NX.

* By that time though, they will have lost about 30-40% of their fan base who will have just moved on.

* I do however love that they are keeping PES going, as it's actually a really solid IP.

* Konami is sitting on Mystical Ninja, Sunet Riders & Suikoden and doing nothing with them.

[Dee_91]

Predict the same thing but on a much shorter time scale. This decision is beyond stupid. I am very confident investors aren't happy about them putting on their chips on black like that. This is a serious gamble. Well, for the individuals over at Konami I can't do anything but hope for the best for them and hope they this succeed..

[krypt1983]

Yea game sells well though. What does this mean for mgo ? Hopefully they support it for years while they obviously are going to sit back and license out their ips..

[DarkOcelet]

Konami have some of the best franchises in gaming history and they are letting all that go for Pachinkos and Mobile. This is really sad and stupid.

I cant wait for them to put Castlevania on Mobile with lives being sold as microtransactions. They did it with Contra and they will do it with the rest of those games.

[razorpakk]

Hope they'll sell their IPs like THQ did...

[Hold_It]

@Razor, the problem with that is THQ went bankrupt. Konami is far from bankrupt. They have health clubs, pachinko (where they make their majority of revenue), mobile gaming, and a few other sources of income.

It does suck that we'll more than likely never get another Castlevania (fav Konami series) or MGS, or Silent Hill. I guess all we can hope for at the end of the day is that the original creators or art directors will leave Konami and create their own game similar to what their Konami work was. Igarashi with Bloodstained, Keiji (ik, it's Capcom) with Mighty Number 9.

The thought of Capcom getting Silent Hill with possible RExSH crossovers or Dead Rising x SH sound cool imo. So does Castlevania by From Software.

[uth11]

Konami could still license the IPs to other developers for console development.

[Baka-akaB]

Given their (lack) ethics , doesnt mean licensing them to other studios would do us any good

Even if at least the previous Contra game , Hard Corps from Arcsys studios for Konami , was pretty solid

[LightofDarkness]

I'm just waiting for both them and Capcom to go under so all those parked IPs can go to pubs/devs who know how to use them. Imagine, Crowd funding so Kojima can buy the Metal Gear IP, or Iga can get Castlevania back. Same with Mikami getting RE and Kamiya getting DMC.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Because you saw their finances? I can't speak on it being "stupid" because I"m not sure just how much they likely spent on MGSV.

I can say for a game that has been in development as long as it has, for a gaming releasing on 5 platforms....its not doing the numbers one would think a game of its quality would be doing.

I got MGSV day 1, LOVE IT, its easily GOTY...but in terms of sales....this game might very much be exactly what Konami is talking about with regards to cost. They can't keep making such titles. We don't have raw numbers for their development cost but I'm betting its why they are stopping console development.

Having the "best" doesn't pay the bills...you can have the "best" and be losing lots and lots of money ,they couldn't just afford to have 7 years go by for a MGSV game (who knows just how much was spent on it too)

It sucks, but what are they to do? keep losing money for lolz?

I hope someone buys those IPs and gives them a good home, I don't fault Konami for what they are doing ,I don't fault Kojima for what he did.

He wanted to create the BEST game and he very much did, that doesn't factor sales.

Good for Kojima, bad for Konami. One must be able to see the difference between the 2.

[gantarat]

I wonder how much development cost spend on MSG V.

[LightofDarkness]

Recently they stated it cost $80 million. If the game sold about 3 million copies, and publishers usually take about $27 of a $60 game's retail cost, then the game will have pretty much broken even, with 1 million in profit (if the original 80 million was exact). Not exactly a return on their investment. Their wish to break away from AAA game development is understandable, if a tad selfish and ignorant of the prestige and pride associated with creating great works of art. But they're a business, who are obviously more concerned with continuing their business and extending their profits.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@Light Of Darkness- 100% agreed, bubbles for well said!

For 7 years of development, its just not much. You got the likes of Ubisoft making games like AC and pimping them out year after year and making MORE then what Konami just did with a 7 year development cycle.

From a business prospective you can't help but to be mad! lol.

It sucks, but I completely understand why its happening. I don't see them selling the IP (though I hope) they might try to use it on their mobile push as one of their top assets.

One of the few cases where you wish they were going out of business lol, at least someone else would get those ips!

Kojima is better off without them, he can easily continue this concepts else where I will still buy! IPs don't make the game, the MAN DOES!

[jmc8888]

This is going to sell far more then 3 million.

They shipped 3 million PHYSICAL discs in the first 5 days.

Lots of people are buying this digitally on PS4/XB1/... and the entire PC market.

This game is going to continue to sell well throughout the rest of the year.

I don't know how much it will sell in total, but if someone guessed ballpark around 10 million, I wouldn't disagree. It may even surpass that.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@JMC- lol, I see we both had the same number in mind! I was thinking 10 million too, hopefully more but I dont' see what that would do.

This has to be the best selling MGS in history by default, I see no other way around it!

[Kleptic]

I'm with EDMIX, at least the initial post.

Some people are underestimating what publishers are currently looking for in gaming as far as 'return on investment'...thank CoD for that...

breaking even in a week or two?...Konami should be happy about that?

MGS is easily one of the single most recognizable franchises in gaming...I'm saying that in the sense of people that enjoy video games, and not someone that only jumps into something that is deemed popular by other kids at lunch tables.

and all these actions really illustrate is that konami is a publisher that doesn't really see how the current trend in gaming is all that sustainable...and that is FAR from an outlandish view...we're stuck in this limbo of a game either being a huge success, or an indie game...and anything in the middle heads to kickstarter before even attempting development...publishers take zero risks any more...and that has been building since last gen pretty consistently...

the writing is all over the wall...marketing is taking over the industry, just as it has every other entertainment industry...its not qualit of content, its how hard you push it, and who you get hooked into it...

3 million in sales in 2 weeks...the shattiest of CoD annual releases does that in a matter of hours...with a development budget of less than a 1/4 of MGSV, and a release target that can be counted in months, not years...

so, from an investment standpoint, how can any of us argue? People DON'T buy these 'big' games the way we should...they're not popular, they're not 'cool', they're not talked about...outside of little gaming community websites...but, they're extremely expensive and take a long time to make...and investors are starting to give up...

Sounds bleak, but seriously...I'm fully accepting that the industry standards of what 'modern gaming' is has been in a downward spiral for a number of years...imo a lot more publishers are going to follow similar paths to konami before things really change...

[InTheLab]

More like sell you 5 gems with 3 gems= 1 life...

God I hate mobile...

[killacal13]

I hate mobile too, and I love that avatar pic

[saywat247]

so everybody is just not gonna mention silent hills. yall just gonna ignore it??? smh rip silent hills hopefully it really does get revived.

[Haru]

I hate Konami for stop making console games and going mobile, but can I really blame them for doing so? When you spend 5 years and teens of millions upon millions of dollars to create a masterpiece and in the end it doesn't even manage to sell even half as much as COD does every single year with maybe half the budget and a quarter of develompent time it's not hard to see why Konami choose to go mobile, the console market is spoiled

[triple_c]

In other words..

"We are going to abandon the people and the things that helped make us famous and get us to where we are today.

Sincerely,

Konami"

[_-EDMIX-_]

they actually don't just make games.

[triple_c]

And? What's your point bro?

[Dark_Overlord]

True, but if you said to someone

'name one thing you associate with konami'

I guarantee you nearly everyone would say 'games' or something game related (i.e MGS etc)

:)

[_-EDMIX-_]

that might be based on asking folks from the west about Konami. I'm pretty sure in the east they are known for more then just console game.

lol, I think they make bottled water in Japan among other things.

[agame914]

It sounds like your defending konami...sickening

[_-EDMIX-_]

@agamer- take your emotions out the door when regarding business bud.

I would do what they are doing if I had a IP that cost way more money and time then it was producing too. Soooooo stop adding your personal feelings in the bunch and actually try to understand why such a thing is happening.

This company likely could have made a annualized series for less money, in less time and got a greater return then what they got for MGSV.

7 years of development, during a time where Kojima canned one version then made another, 5 platforms annnnnnnd its not even going to sell better then a Assassins Creed.....

Soooo they spent 7 years going on 5 platforms to get outsold by an AC game? Or a COD game that comes out every year?

I mean....it doesn't take a genius to see that maybe they are in the wrong business if they can't get those numbers.

That is not me saying I want that... I don't as a gamer, but if I owned them as a company....yes...I would have pushed for that happening a long time ago purely for money purposes, they would have gotten greater returns. They tried dissociating Kojima from the game series but that ship has sailed long ago lol too many know MGS with Kojima and they should have sorta stopped that associating long ago, but its too late to try to undo such things.

The fans see it as Kojima's work and thats it, thus....once he is gone, lots of that games attention is gone too. I'm not sure they could do a AC or COD set up as they just don't have the funding and wouldn't risk it, never mind 1 MGS being made, but 2 MGS's being made would hurt them a lot ,they would legit risk the whole company to try to make a set up work ,even that might not help them as MGS post Kojima and hell even with Kojima just can't do AC or COD numbers.

I own MGSV day 1, I've owned every MGS day 1 since MGS2, been a fan since 1998...

You need to be able to understand the difference from looking at it as a businessman and as a gamer. I get why this is happening, I don't like it, but I agree with it as a businessman, I understand exactly why they are going mobile.

[Xman2K]

I've owned all metal gear releases day 1, except for original NES which was first game I bought. Even bought snakes revenge the first day, lol. This series means a lot not just for me but for japanese developed games. It's truly sad this happened but I'm sure a huge sony or ms buyout for the ip is in the works, so waiting to see

[NeoGamer232]

Actually Konami has been famous for its single player games (mostly).

And as everyone should know by now that single player games are perpetually held back in sales because of the used game market.

So, for all the gamers out there that bought games like MGS and Castlevania used rather than new, I would like to thank you for not supporting the developers who made great games, but now can't make enough money to justify further development of their titles.

This is probably solely a business decision. Why put money into stuff that is not making money, but instead generating money for companies like GameStop.

You can say what you want and blame them all you want, but if they were making a lot of solid profits from games they wouldn't be backing away from them.

[bmky]

it's not our fault they lack creativity. GTA5 just passed the 54mill mark. The game is still priced like it released yesterday in most regions. They just lazy. wanna cash in on mobile which is a short cut to investoing huge in a brilliant I.P

[NeoGamer232]

@bmky
Castlvania Lord of Shadows 1 was an awesome game (83-85 on Metacritic for the platforms). Sales for combined PS3 and 360 barely topped one million total.

Why did they decrease their game budgets and axe games? Well, when they put out a 16 hour, AAA game in Castlevania Lord of Shadows 1 not enough people bought it new.

That was going to be the problem with PT as well. Great game, but it is a single player experience, most people shrug off SP games and say they will buy them when they are cheap and used.

Metal Gear Solid IV had sales of 6 million. Again, not enough people are buying the quality games they made.

So, Konami had built quality games, but unfortunately gamers didn't buy them enough. So, here gamers are focusing on what Konami did wrong vs. what gamers didn't do.

It is funny how gamer's walk into gamestop and buy used games but never once think about where the money goes. It didn't go to Konami nor the Konami development studios. It went straight to the investors that own gamestop and other used game stores. That does nothing to encourage these guys to build more great games.

If gamers want games they need to support the publishers and developers that make the games, not the retail outlets that sell used games.

Or what we get is the new world order. F2P games that are actually Pay-2-Progress, a bunch of re-mastered games, or yearly games (Cod, AC, etc.) that build marketing hype through the roof to drive sales.

Only the first party publishers and the very large 3rd party publishers (Activision, Ubisoft, and EA) can really afford to take a chance on new IPs... Activision's new IP = zero. EA's new IP this gen = zero until Star Wars Battlefront, which isn't even a new IP. Ubisoft's new IP = zero.

Welcome to the future of gaming... Gamers got what gamers deserve.

[My_Outer_Heaven]

RIP Konami

[freshslicepizza]

if they can't make money on those games then that is a viable reason but i am sure mgs makes them money but the issue there could be kojima. i would like someobody else to take over those ip's and not let them simply rot in mobile land.

[zep]

There goes my suikoden 6 :(

[r2oB]

I just died a little inside realizing this.

[RedDevils]

I will missed it :( I wish they sold that IP to Square Enix, at least they put an effort in making games

[Crummybear]

Later Konami, it's been fun.

[Activemessiah]

Pretty much "Gamers stop buying Konami products"

[RedDevils]

Well. I've stop anything Konami relate since Pes 2011 not even MGSV make me want to buy it lol

[_-EDMIX-_]

Soooooooo pretty sure I've been saying this for a while now while Ignorant folk kept acting as if Konami would just magically make MGS continue lol.

Because the writing wasn't on the wall huh?

[silvacrest]

Sad stuff, I was hoping this was all an elaborate troll started by kojima and konami was just going along with it

[gantarat]

Wait what ?

[My_Outer_Heaven]

I think this guy sums things up nicely.

[teknx]

For those of us in the US, PES probably isn't that popular. But for the rest of the world, soccer is pretty much THE sport. They probably make good money on worldwide sales. In terms of the future of MGS, they are probably working on a MGS themed pachinko machine that says Whooooooooo.

Although it seeems like a complete waste for Fox Engine to now only be used for a soccer game, they did pay for it and can do whatever they want I guess. I'll miss you PT..

[RedDevils]

Good, now they can put major resources and focus on making PES better than Fifa and return the game to it glorious days

[Summons75]

Boy...we didn't see this coming at all /S

It's a shame but whatever, bye Konami after this past year...you won't be missed

[Nodoze]

So MGO will be online for what, 6 months tops before the pull the plug and focus on Pachinko machines.

F U Konami. Once they realize how they have f'd up, it will be too late to course correct.

Come on over to Sony Kojima! I am sure they will help fund a KP productions studio.

[hellothere1977]

Sony ain't going to give Kojima a blank check the way Kojima was bleeding Konami to make one game.

80mil development + ??? in advertisement to sell maybe 4-6mil copies. Don't forget most copies will be sold for much less than the initial $60 pricetag when sales start to slow and the discounts start coming.

And by the information trickling out, Kojima is quite loose with company money to make his games. Any executive greenlighting that kind of expenditure to release a product with a known history of normal sales needs to be beaten by the shareholders.

[TheLordOfStuff]

God I hope they sell some of their IP's.

Specifically metal gear, oh God let them sell metal gear...

[dillhole]

Konami's gone crazy.

[SoulWarrior]

Konami please sell Metal Gear to someone else if you don't plan on making anymore, give to someone who will be able to do the series justice than let it rot.

RIP Konami, you will not be missed.

[Good-Smurf]

So Pawapuro (Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyu) is not an AAA series?
Because yesterday the Pawapuro official site announced that they will release their latest game on PS4,PS3 and PS vita in 2016.
Being the no.1 selling baseball game series in Japan means something...
I'm cautiously excited at this point...

[dimasok]

If they are abandoning gaming, why not sell all of their IPs like THQ did? Why sit on it?

[Double_O_Revan]

Different situation. THQ went bankrupt and basically had to liquidate their assets. Konami has money, they just don't want to risk making expensive games anymore when they know they can make plenty of money on mobile games and their pachinko machines.

Here the US we may see this as a stupid move, but those things make them money in Japan.

[dimasok]

Not debating the rationale of doing more profitable business in Japan, but unless they continue making money on the properties they sit on, why not sell it, make a profit and have someone else work on the IPs?

If they just focus on Pachinko and what not and not have their IP generate any money, what's the point?

[stragomccloud]

R.I.P Konami.

[assdan]

If this is REALLY happening, Konami should sell off their franchises. Why not?

[AizenSosuke]

RIP Konami!

[Fin_The_Human]

**RIP Konami a new one** Fixed

[feraldrgn]

I guess Kojima knew this was coming.

[hellothere1977]

How could he not considering how much he drained from company coffers to make "his" vision.

[WitWolfy]

Old news there was in a news article back this back in April if im not mistaken. Why is everybody going ape shit now, did everyone just forget???

[Kalebninja]

They should just sell all their IPS to Sony. Out of the big 3 Sony seems to be the more popular choice for this companies games.

[fsdgf]

It'd be a shame to see groundbreaking IPs like Suikoden, Contra, Gradius, Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders be reduced to mobile shovelware. I'd honestly rather Konami abandon video game development altogether.

[alabtrosMyster]

We will miss the old Konami :-( Castlevania SOTN. the great Metal Gears games, the older Gradius and Parodius games... Even Track and Field and other less known games, such a sad day in gaming.

[sAVAge_bEaST]

Contra.

[MeliMel]

This is devastating news for the gaming community. Why give it up, cant they do something ala Capcom where if one of the big three want one of the franchiese they would have to fund it? Or atleast auction the ips off. Man this a crappy news.

[UNKLE]

You all can disagree all you want but konami do the right thing they can make more money of mobile games and 3ds games with lower risk. Its much better strategy than Triple A games.

[Pintheshadows]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

If you put the effort into triple A games they are far more profitable almost immediately. See, MGSV.

[Der_Kommandant]

RIP all those great intellectual properties.

[PizzaSteve]

Damn what a shame. I hope Sony buys MGS, Castlevania, and Silent Hill. Not right to let these great games die like this. Konami do the right thing for the gamers.

[zombie78rock]

This is the Death of konami no games= NO $$$$$$$?
But guess what there not the first and there not the last..

[hellothere1977]

Lol, their console division is actually burning the huge profits they make from other divisions in the company.

I take it business is not your strong suit.

[Pintheshadows]

This is nonsense which can be debunked by 20 minutes of research on Google. They are not doing well by any stretch of the imagination. MGSV was almost completely responsible for keeping them afloat the last two years.

Unless they heavily restructure, which I think their new management wants to do (which is bad business as they have nothing in place already) they are gone.

Their forecasts are dismal.

[PhoenixUp]

Konami is truly a dead company to gamers

[ajax17]

And that's the final nail in the coffin.

[audiocafe]

Hopefully they just sell off their IPs, but I doubt it. They'll probably just end up torturing beloved franchises by making them all mobile.

[Tzuno]

Who remembers Akklaim? yeah that's right i bet many of you forgot about it, well this is gonna happen with Konami in the end, many will forget about it.

[CLOUD1983]

How sad to see my 2nd most favorite company to have this fate... Konami owns 3 of my 10 most favorite games/franchise MGS, SILENT HILL, SUIKODEN, what about those games now? Are they plan to let them rot? I hope they will give those games to some other company someone with a vision to revive them with the best way possible, Konami stopped having a vision for a long time now, time for new blood to step up.

[mafiahajeri]

Im thinking Konami wanted to turn MGS into a yearly release, which Kojima refused for obvious reasons...

And from their, all hell broke loose...

[hellothere1977]

No, they wanted him to stop burning company capital on a game that will barely see too much in profit.

[Tedakin]

Konami should sell off their big franchises so they can continue somewhere else.

[Jag-T1000]

Damn you konami!!!! I want another Castlevania game!!!

[Ristul]

If you like the old style Castlevania, there is Bloodstained to look forward to at least.

[TheOnlyMastrx]

Konami just can't stop digging their grave can they...

[ShaunCameron]

I guess MGS5:PP didn't make much money back for Konami.

[Nilla_Nate]

Thanks alot new CEO. Getting paid millions to destroy a company in the same vein as Don Mattrick.

[Paleblood]

I hope Konami sell its IP to Sony so they can properly manage them.

[BABY-JEDI]

This is pretty sad news for us gamers! But let's be honest. Konami's directors couldn't give a f*ck

[Pintheshadows]

Nope, they are idiots. S rank idiots.

[Pintheshadows]

Konami are moronic then as console gaming is strong right now. Talk about stepping away at the wrong time. Their new leadership are insane.

Frankly, the words I want to use regarding their idiocy are so strong that I cannot use them here.

I give them a D ranking for running a company. What an absurd decision.

[BABY-JEDI]

It's amazing how a company can have such a strong portfolio & yet decide to throw it all away on a quest to push forward the promotion/business side of gambling in Japan. It's amazes me how so many talented people could be managed by complete idiots

[Pintheshadows]

The funniest thing is their gambling division is making a bad loss at the moment. They are not doing well.

[BABY-JEDI]

Well, let me shed some crocodile tears here. Boo Hoo 😭

[Haki1112]

Give me a fucking suikoden Konami!!!!!

[KaZeDaRKWIND]

Man if Konami didn't seem toast before... They pretty much just wrote their own obituary.

[XanderZane]

Yeah..I don't think I'll be buying any of their mobile games if that's were they are going. I could care less about PES. Looks like Konami is going down the toilet after releasing their biggest game in MGS V.

[rocketpanda]

We all knew this was going to happen. Their managing of their gaming division has been a joke for a long time now and they want out and make easy money with free mobile games loaded with in-app purchases and gaming themed pachinko machines.

I love PES16 demo but wi get it second hand as well as MGSV, and I don't want to hear that bollocks of buy the game new to support Kojima. Any money made on the game goes to Konami, Kojima and his team were paid to make the game. Hence why Konami go rid of the team, because it is too costly for them, well that is their excuse. It is not like Hollywood where some movie stars sign deals to get a percentage of profits rather than a contracted fee. He and his team down a phenomenal job yet Konami still wanted to hang them out to dry. Will never buy anything new from them

[mastershredder]

There is sooooo much more to Konami than games. Also, there has been so much stuff about Konami as a whole going on, that it's kinda funny to see the gaming masses see this as some sort of shocking thing, especially since it has been pretty much happening in slow motion. Even a snail could predict it.

[SynestheticRoar]

Konami should sell all their IPs, and made a bundle.

[arbitor365]

I hope they sell off MGS and then whatever company they sold it to hires Kojima and he has a gigantic middle finger to konami in the game. That would be amazing

[hiawa23]

This sucks, as I love their franchises. My alltime favorite Konami games are Run N Gun 1 & 2. I was hoping the franchise would get a reboot on this gens consoles. They should sell their IPs if they are not going to do anything with them.

[arbitor365]

The saddest part is, they probably wont sell off their franchises. They will just hold on to them to plaster on Pachinko machines. Those will exist as an everlasting, monolithic "**** you" to gamers who supported them for 30 years.

[Scottyxboxoneandps4]

They have some proper idiots in charge over at konami. No wonder kojima left its starting to make sense now. This is a sad day for gaming especially after they just released two games that have been receiving top scores...

[Detox024]

Too bad fifa is much better

[bharathwajravi]

The metal gear series was excellent but this is bullshit...Transition from PC games to mobile games..?!!!What could be the reason for the company who delivered excellent metal gear games to change into mobile games...

[DJ]

I'm only an hour into The Phantom Pain, and Konami's decision to trash such an amazing game engine and huge amount of internal talent is the biggest blunder I've ever seen a company make. Other than Square Enix not releasing Crisis Core: FF7 as a PS3 remaster. But that's another story.

[tigertron]

Konami is having a full Britney Spears breakdown!

[DivineAssault]

They cant sell anything else now thats why.. The metal gear and castlevania creators are gone so theres nothing they have i personally want anymore anyway.. Good decision

[DarkKaine]

Of course. If all else fails just stick to something that 90% of the world wants to see: a bunch of overpaid idiots running after a ball. *Clap* well done Konami!
That's how you know all they care about is $$$$

[UNKLE]

android/3ds games can make more money/LOW RISK than triple A games its clearly most of gamers here don't know shit about this.

[Bolts]

What's RIP about Konami? They stand to be more profitable now than ever. Just look at how profitable Fallout Shelter is, and that's a game that wasn't designed to be profitable. And then there's Game of War. $1.5 million a day is hard to argue against.

The strategy is incredibly sound. Why pour hundreds of millions into AAA console game development, and the need to retain expensive hot shot game devs, when you can hire scrubs to develop mobile games and spend the majority of the budget on marketing?

Low risk and high profits? You gotta be an idiot not to focus on mobile.

[Maxor]

Don't the fanboys get it? Where Konmai is going, they don't need you. So quit crying at the altar and move on. It's pathetic really.