Konami is restructuring its staff as three production departments are being dissolved. According to IGN, the company stated they will not be shuttering its gaming production after early public rumors.
Much of the specific details around the restructuring come from Konami’s earlier January release. A list containing existing executives are disclosed with changes starting February 2021 while Konami’s former VP Hideki Hayakawa will become its Chief Operating Officer. More staff changes include appointing new Corporate Officers and Senior Executive Officers. Former associate managers to Konami will also be appointed with full-time positions for three specific divisions, including the Production Departments and Support/Planning areas.
This is also where Konami is dissolving its Production Division 1, 2 and 3 departments. Previous speculation revolved around Konami’s prime area in game productions while the company reiterated it would continue to run. A spokesperson later told IGN “The announcement made refers to an internal restructure, with Production Divisions being consolidated. We have not ‘shut down’ our video gaming division.” Of course, Konami’s focus as a game studio continues with the handling of franchises such as Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Frogger, Silent Hill, PES, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Contra.
The company hasn’t commented further into their internal reshuffling, while its new appointment of executives could be part of future plans and decisions for their major IPs. Similar shake-ups are regular among game studios, as teams including Capcom have appointed and re-appointed staff. This was the case for its new direction with Resident Evil 7 and the subsequent reboot games. Interestingly, the internal shuffling did not provide any information into external decisions which come from third-party studio acquisitions and takeovers.
One of Konami’s recently prolific changes included Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima leaving the studio after an unknown discourse. The Phantom Pain. This led to the birth of Kojima Productions and its first title Death Stranding, picking up on a collaboration left off from Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus after P.T. Unfortunately, the decision also led to Silent Hills being cancelled following a highly-successful P.T. demo and no new major Metal Gear Solid games after