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Rest In Peace: Konami Edition.

Mercer

By Mercer,
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Mercer

Mercer

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Over the last month, Konami has exploded. Kojima (Metal Gear series) and his team have been moved from full time status to contract workers, Konami going as far as to remove Kojima's name and his team from the latest Metal Gear promotional items. They were recently added back in, but things continue to devolve.

 

Last week it was announced that P.T., the playable trailer for the new Silent Hills team lead by Kojima and Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labrynth, Pacific Rim) would be taken down from the Playstation Store. Today, it was officially announced that the new Silent Hills project has been cancelled.

 

Rumors of the destruction of Konami's gaming division have erupted in the last few hours. Few American or European gamers know that Konami makes most of their profit from pachinko machines and gambling. They entered the gaming market during the Nintendo and Sega boom, but like many companies in the last five years have seen their profit margins plummet with the exponential increase in game development cost.

 

Let's take a moment and recognize one of the old great Japanese game companies before it's inevitable collapse.

 

I'll always remember Castlevania as being one of the defining games of my childhood and although Metal Gear never really clicked for me, I have been a passionate fan of Silent Hill since my teens.

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Mikh'a

Mikh'a

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Man... I don't even know how to feel about the idea that they're going to be done completely. I can't recall a time before Konami at his point as far as my gaming life goes. Agonizing hour after hour of perfecting dance moves at the bowling alley on DDR before we could get our own in house copy! The first game my dad ever introduced me to as a small child was Contra. He'd sit me on his lap when he came home from work and we'd play together. ( And by together I mean he'd give me an unplugged controller, lolol. )

 

It's... wow.

 

:(

 

Feels.

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Max

Max

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Huge MGS fan here. MGSV will be my final Metal Gear game, since it's Kojima's last. After he leaves I'm sure Konami will milk the series for all it's worth.

 

I was bummed out when I read that Silent Hills was canceled, but I sorta expected it with how everything has been panning out for the last several months.

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Mercer

Mercer

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Huge MGS fan here. MGV will be my final Metal Gear game, since it's Kojima's last. After he leaves I'm sure Konami will milk the series for all it's worth.

 

I was bummed out when I read that Silent Hills was canceled, but I sorta expected it with how everything has been panning out for the last several months.

Considering that it seems like they are liquidating their gaming division this will be the last Metal Gear. Period.

 

Hell, I forgot DDR. DDR defined my life through college. Every weekend, tens of dollar dumped into that stupid, wonderful arcade cabinet.

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Max

Max

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Considering that it seems like they are liquidating their gaming division this will be the last Metal Gear. Period.

 

Hell, I forgot DDR. DDR defined my life through college. Every weekend, tens of dollar dumped into that stupid, wonderful arcade cabinet.

Actually Konami announced plans for a new Metal Gear game last month. Source.

 

In a thinly-veiled response to yesterday's events, Konami today issued a press release through its Japanese website announcing its intention to develop a brand new Metal Gear series - and it wants to recruit a brand new team to build it (thanks to NeoGAF user duckroll for the translation).

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Blue

Blue

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Who knows, maybe Kojima and his buddies will just do what the original Squaresoft team did and rebuild!

 

After leaving Square Enix, Hironobu Sahaguki and the others of the good old Squaresoft team (FFI-FFX) rejoined together as Mistwalker, and have restarted over. It's sad that they had to leave Final Fantasy behind in the hands of their former rival (Enix, Dragon Quest team, of which Yoshida was a part of I reckon), but hey! It seems they have started a new series called Last Story.

 

Last = Final

Story = Fantasy

 

I expect great things from it, even though they're starting with very limited budget and hardware <_< dang Nintendo....

 

But yes, I would expect no less from Kojima.

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Mikh'a

Mikh'a

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Hell, I forgot DDR. DDR defined my life through college. Every weekend, tens of dollar dumped into that stupid, wonderful arcade cabinet.

 

DDR was so popular for a while when I was in HS that they modified gym class to include it. @_@ It was glorious.

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Enla

Enla

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That's what they fucking get for neglecting Suikoden.

 

Good riddance.

 

As much as I was looking forward to Silent Hills I'm hopeful that this will actually give those properties a chance to be put under new ownership. Suikoden in particular needs a revival.

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cherrybomb

cherrybomb

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PT was absolutely amazing for what it was, and it's an incredible shame that nothing is going to come of it now. Silent Hills could've been the shot in the arm the series needed after so many flops and mediocre offerings. Playing PT is probably the only time I've felt genuinely unnerved by a videogame; only certain moments of the Siren series can even remotely compare. So much squandered potential.

 

Hideo Kojimi is brilliant, the Metal Gear series is the only video game series that I consistently adore, and he was sooo close to working his weird, thoughtful magic on Silent Hill in a Kojima/Guillermo Del Toro dream team.

 

I really, really hope that Kojima can keep on with his whole vibe, whether he finds a publisher that can appreciate him or goes indie or whatever. Insert Big Boss salute here.

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Kellach Woods

Kellach Woods

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Still feels like most of you are overreacting.

 

But w/e I never really cared for anything Kojima anyway.

 

Most of their properties wouldn't even see a revival under new skies - Castlevania would remain westernized, same with Silent Hill. Suikoden would simply be abandoned still. Let's not even talk about Goemon/Gradius/Parodius here. (What!?) Metal Gear(!?) (repeat ad nauseam) is the most marketable one and they'd have trouble even getting one thing off the ground because the fans (lol) won't let anyone but Kojima handle it.

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Warren Castille

Warren Castille

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Still feels like most of you are overreacting.

 

But w/e I never really cared for anything Kojima anyway.

 

A company that's been a mainstay in people's lives suddenly turning inward and destroying itself. People are going to get passionate about things they love, man.

 

PT was amazing. It's a shame it's about to get unpersoned. Everyone go download it now, and never sleep again.

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Steel Wolf

Steel Wolf

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Grew up born and raised with Konami titles, from Castlevania to Contra to Silent Hill and Metal Gear. I'm not sure how much weight is allowed to the rumors of Konami shutting down entirely, but even the mere thought is a depressing one. That logo signals gobs of childhood memories.

 

The Silent Hill/Kojima thing is probably the cruelest cut. Silent Hill has been the gold standard of horror titles for me, and being something of a helpless fanboi I even found things to like with some of the worse entries in the series. That said, even I recognized how the P.T. signaled a true return to form--a walk into the dissolving mind and the darkest nightmares hidden deep inside the soul. There's now always going to be a worry that whatever shape the next SH game takes will pale miserably in comparison--Kojima and del Toro set the bar that high.

 

I'm hoping they'll pull through, or at least sell their IPs to outside sources...but I hope to see that little orange and red logo just a little while longer.

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FreelanceWizard

FreelanceWizard

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Castlevania, Contra, and Gradius -- these were the games of my childhood. It's sad to see that Konami's video game division is imploding, given all the hours of fun (and, yes, frustration :) ) their games have given me. Such a pity...

 

I still fire up the SNES emulator now and then and play a bit of Gradius III or Dracula X. I also enjoy making people make horrified noises as they watch me play Gradius ReBirth on my Wii. :)

 

 

Also, everyone, could we please not snipe at each other here? Thanks.

 

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