What do big companies care more about?

[Maxpphire]

Ya know, Konami actually has me thinking.

Recently, if you've read the unhappy thread and my posts you'll have noticed that Konami C&D the private servers that allowed us to play Bemani games, which they have had every right to do. They just didn't bother until Round 1 Arcades started opening in America, and thus claimed they were gonna offer America offical eAmuse. It's pretty evident now that they meant they were only gonna offer Round 1 eAmuse, and fuck all the other arcades that existed around America with Bemani Machines first. The Japan community was sad for us and even a few artists who makes music for the games even told us to cheer up and not to be sad.

A day after our server goes, it's proven that Kojima is no longer with Konami. While Konami still owns the rights to Metal Gear, they are either gonna not work on it, or likely gonna tank it.

Like the only ip they really have left in America that many (older) people would recognize is Castlevania. They actually streamed the GBA game for a while on their official twitch channel yesterday before I went to work. I do think it is pretty clear though that they really don't care about their American fans.

What do you think is going on? Do you have similar thoughts about other big companies?

[Kosheh]

That kinda sounds like an anger-fueled post. ):

But I was actually talking to my co-worker about this as well, as he told me Kojima's a free agent now after MGS5. All in all, I don't think things are spelling out too well for Konami...their only choices at this point, really are to

• more aggressively push their flagship franchises in the West (Bemani games, namely. It'd be ABOUT TIME. Their other cash cow is...uh, Winning Eleven?) [yeah, alright. like that's gonna happen]
  
• license/publish indie games to make a little cash here and there [maybe?]
  
• make more internationally-franchised IPs [could happen; if there's ever a cocky, proud Japanese company, it's Konami. That's for sure]
  
• rerelease old arcade classics on consoles with or without netplay to squeeze out a few extra bucks here and there [likely, if they hadn't been doing that for years now]
  
• retire from Western markets entirely and focus on Japanese sales (which seems the most likely here in this scenario) [most likely]
  

From a hopeless fanboy perspective, they could also make a Konami Classics arcade cabinet, shove all those games in there (Contra, Frogger and...Track and Field...and...uh), and sell them to bars and stuff which would get them out of hot water.
But it doesn't seem likely that they'd be able to get all their franchises back, sooooo hope you like Contra, Castlevania, and Frogger a really lot





You know, isn't it weird that all these Japanese-owned former gaming giants are seeming to start to buckle? Sega, Capcom, and now Konami...?

[Gors]

Konami stopped being relevant after SNES, basically. Of course there are many other great titles post-SNES, but I could pick a random game before, see the Konami logo and say "this is going to be the tightest shit ever"

And this proved to be true with the Tiny Toon games, Rocket Knight Adventures, Ganbare Goemon, TMNT, Sunset Riders, Gradius, Twinbee, Gradius, Contra, that one 2P robot fighting game I forgot the name, International Superstar Soccer Deluxe, Track & Field, Castlevania etc etc.

Nowadays Konami either lives off of:

1-Castlevania
2-Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven
3-Arcade cabinets/Pachislot
4-Metal Gear

and now that 1 and 4 are kinda in shit moments, there's not much to do - especially when item 3 is Japan-exclusive. Things are really bad for Konami.

[E-Man]

Speaking of what Konami profits off of, don't they also hold at least a significant amount of ownership over the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise? I lost interest in it years ago, so I don't know if it is the case anymore.

[Gors]

Yes, Konami owns Yu-Gi-Oh. They still make cameo cards off of their videogame franchises.

Still I don't know how profitable it is as the fad's passed - are they still being produced/used/stuff?

[senjen]

honestly alot of the big gaming giants are going downhill it's like rare all over again except more companies are declining in quality now.

Indie games are definitively helping abit keep the games fresh and exciting.

[Omega]

Doesn't surprise me Konami would be phasing out their gaming sector, they keep killing off their franchises with dumb moves and don't know why.

[Kosheh]

Yes, Konami owns Yu-Gi-Oh. They still make  cameo cards off of their videogame franchises.

Still I don't know how profitable it is as the fad's passed - are they still being produced/used/stuff?

Chiming in really fast - they are, actually (Cinemarella's brother plays) They're still putting out new decks and whatnot and national tourneys are still being held. Hell, they're still churning out the card battler games, too (though I think they're on iOS now) and I think the cartoon's moved onto "Arc-V" and holy smokeheck how do they keep on making these protagonists so anime. It's being dubbed and released internationally sometime this year.

I think if anyone, psychospacecow might be able to shed light on this, but now that I think about it, Yugioh is totally enough to keep them afloat stateside. I wouldn't be surprised if they start laying off a majority of their games sector though, and keep it primarily focused on mobile development.

EDIT: Also according to the article, Konami owns a company called...are you ready for this
"4K Media"

formerly "4Kids"



oh no, it's back (but in all seriousness, the company is now dedicated to producing dubbed versions of Yugioh cartoons)

[Gors]

That's a nice source of income for Konami I guess - all the anime and cartoons it publishes and dubs etc. might keep the company afloat

however my hopes of a new Goemon game is dead and buried already it seems

[Kosheh]

however my hopes of a new Goemon game is dead and buried already it seems

it's alright, Gors - they'll rerelease them digitally

Eventually...



...Someday. ):

Honestly, on Goemon

I feel like a Goemon game for modern-gen consoles would just be plain weird. It's like Battletoads: Everyone says they want one, and it sounds great on paper, but in execution a modern-day iteration of those franchises would just feel extremely awkward.

An indie game that apes the gameplay of those games, however, would be another story

(and how has no one made a really tough sidescrolling Touhou beat-em-up that doesn't give one of the witches a giant boot?)

[Dolphman]

I feel Capcom these days seem to only care about Street Fighter while ignoring their other franchises. Mega Man fans feel the same way.
They didn't do anything for the 20th anniversary of Darkstalkers other than say they're not making a new game. All we have is a new book by Udon, Such a disappointment, though i will check said book out.
Heck, i've said to people at conventions they should buy the compilation that's out on XBLA & PSN after they complimented on my Felicia T-shirt, that i wear exclusively for such events.

One thing i've noticed with Japanese game companies now is they're all making games with Unreal Engine lately. Are they getting lazy to make their own engines? Sure it's free and it saves time and money, but i want to see something made with an in-house engine.

Dunno what to say about Konami, other than i want a new 2D Castlevania. With sprites instead of boring old polygons in a 2D perspective.

[E-Man]

One thing i've noticed with Japanese game companies now is they're all making games with Unreal Engine lately. Are they getting lazy to make their own engines? Sure it's free and it saves time and money, but i want to see something made with an in-house engine.

I think I recall Square-Enix also getting into the Unreal Engine to make games, such as Kingdom Hearts III. Not sure what to say about that, though.

Speaking of SE, I don't know exactly how well that company is doing these days. It's obvious that they are milking every last drop out of their Final Fantasy series and some of the recent games aren't doing so hot.

[Helmo]

Kojima left? Who is working on Silent Hills then?

Honestly yeah a lot of the Japanese gaming companies are going downhill, the market has just changed so much. Westen audiences get stuff specifically targeted towards them instead of Japanese companies making stuff for Japan and then just selling it over here.

[Koopaul]

We're entering a dark age for video games I think.

[Omega]

Nintendo is still a shining beacon
SEGA still making Sonic games on console but everything else is p.much going to mobile
Capcom is still releasing some big games like SF, Monster hunter, Devil May cry and Resident evil, and some smaller stuff like Ace attorney here and there, but no Megamans.
Konami is near death
Namco is perfectly fine
Square-Enix is chugging along with their JRPGS
Taito, who the hell knows where Taito went.