| VideoGameAccountant said: I'm actually working on something about Konami right now. I'm still researching it, but allow me to give some piliminary thoughts. One of the problems it seems with Konami is that they let their series go to shit. Konami was a premier developer years ago, but outside of Metal Gear, there was nothing they were known for. And while everyone loves Kojima, he was spending too much money on his projects. You can see this because despite having higher revenues in 2015, Konami had better profits the following year, suggesting that MGS5 was far too expensive (for reference, under US GAAP, you expense [amoritize] software when its sold after it meets technical feasible. IIRC, this is the same under international standards). Konami also seems to have lost a lot of its talent. Obviously, Kojima left, but so did the creator of Castlevania. The company has a bad reputation so it would be difficult to build up more talent. The other issue is do many of these brands still have the recognition to warrant re-releases and remasters? Metal Gear and Castlevania maybe, but probably not Contra. In Konami's current state, the strategy of pushing mobile games may benefit them. The reason they made more money in 2016 is due to a higher gross margin. The low(er) cost of mobile games may allow them a foot holder to build capital and attract new talent. Current AAA is too risky with how high the cost of development is. In fact, a big reason Konami likely rushed MGS5 was due to poor sales of Ground Zero. Switch development may be a good alternative, as OP suggested, given the lower cost. Nevertheless, I think the company needs to find its footing. I think re-releases and remasters are not a great strategy as they need to find what Konami will be in the future, not what they were 10 years ago. |
This hypothetical scenario of course assumes Konami being under new leadership, kinda like the transformation SE went thru the last few years. I think Konami's IPs still have value and a lot of recognition, most of those dont need a big budget tot kickstart them. Bomberman is a budget tier game, it did well on the Switch. A beautiful pixel arty Contra and Gradius would be done by indie studios (and def turn eyes on them, like Sonic Mania).
Konami may not have much inhouse talent, but to be honest, most of the AAA games I suggested is thru to the PlatinumGames collaboration: MGR2 and ZOE3. A 3D Castlevania might be more a Fromsoftware thing, but either studio would be the best they can get and a massive upgrade over the terrible devs they chose last gen. And those MGS1-3 remakes would basically be the same games, except on the fox engine, they seem to have enough talent to make those beautiful cutscenes for the Pachinko game.
The only wild card is Suikoden 6, which I'd suggest should be done by the old devs. I think the market is ripe for a new JRPG like that, it's been more receptive to Japanese games than they've ever been in the past decade. If the game is good it will survive in today's market thanks to word of mouth and social media.
