Konami has been making a lot of very strange moves as of late, causing many to question the future of the company that was once a powerhouse in the video game industry. The company has largely remained silent on the matter though, but that has ended with an interview between Konami CEO Hayakawa Hideki and Japanese website Trendy Net. The interview was translated by NeoGaf user HGH, and it reveals a lot about the current mindset at Konami.
The entire translated interview is below, but the key points are that Konami is shifting toward mobile gaming as their main platform, calling mobile “the future of gaming”. While they will still be working on their flagship franchises, Metal Gear Solid and Winning Eleven (PES), they will be looking closely at ways to leverage these in the mobile space.
“We will pursue mobile games aggressively,” said Hayakawa. “Our main platform will be mobiles. Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like “items” to selling things like “features.”
“We saw with these games that even people who buy physical games are motivated to buy extra content. The success of Power pro especially has motivated us to actively push more of our popular series onto mobile than ever before.”
“Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies.”
“We hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too.”
“With multiplatform games, there’s really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world.”
