Nikkei has translated their prior article regarding changes happening in Konami. The new translation provides just enough new context to make the topic worth reexploring.
Apparently, the company has discreetly undergone a reorganization, and is planning to shift their games business from console to social games. Among the changes that were not clear before was the renaming of Kojima Productions to Production Department 8.
Regarding Akira Sakuma and Momotaru Electric Railway AKA Momotaru Dentetsu, Akira and Konami used to share copyright, since Konami acquired Akira’s original employer, Hudson Soft, in 2012. The two were apparently talking about profit sharing, but these talks have since broken down. Akira instead approached Nintendo about making a new game, and Konami will be licensing the IP to Nintendo for this purpose.
Kagemasa Kozuki, Konami’s founder and chairman, did direct the shift in priorities from console to social games, but Kozuki does have data to back these changes. For this financial year, Konami reported game sales dropped 40 % over the last decade, down to 96.9 billion yen. 40 % of these sales came from social game Dragon Collection. Earnings from video games and arcade games dipped 66 % over the last decade.
Nikkei’s article still casts suspicion on Konami’s dubious actions towards its console gaming division. In comparison to other Japanese game companies, that either committed to console games or doubled down on mobile, Konami has not been more forthcoming to its own developers, or the outside world, what it plans to do with their studios. Aside from rumors of poor treatment of developers, Konami has stopped reporting on how well their console games perform since March.
To put this in context, other older console game companies like Capcom insist on using what they’ve learned on mobile for console games, while developers of successful mobile games like Gungho have made moves to enter consoles.
It’s the lack of honesty on Konami’s part that’s been most distressing and disturbing. Unfortunately, it does not seem like we will get more clarity on this in the near future. As of July 31, Kozuki and Konami have still not responded to this report.
