Many rumors have surfaced that Konami has decided to leave the AAA industry, abandoning the Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Castlevania franchises.
According to Gameblog Konami announced they have no plans to pursue the Metal Gear franchise, despite earlier reports stating it would continue without the game’s creator Hideo Kojima. Eurogamer also reports that AAA development is slowing down at Konami with the exception of Pro Evolution Soccer.
While this news isn’t inspiring, it should come as no surprise. Considering the May reports that Konami was shifting its focus from console gaming to mobile, with Konami President Hideki Hayakawa saying in a Japanese interview “With multiplatform games, there’s really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobile will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world.”
Konami hasn’t been doing great lately. Gamers did not take lightly to the publisher’s decision to remove Hideo Kojima’s name from the Phantom Pain, and more were outraged at the cancellation of Silent Hills, and almost complete removal of PT from existence.
With Konami’s recent treatment of many of its best known franchises, it’s starting to seem more like the company interest in making games is fading. However, with Kenji Igarashi taking to Kickstarter to make the Castlevania he wanted, we can only hope more developers will find other creative outlets to make the games Konami seems to be abandoning.
