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VAMatt on 28 February 2018
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iron_megalith said:
VAMatt said:

It occurred to me when the firing happened.  As I understand it, the guy burns through cash, refuses to take direction, and, consequently, made it very hard for Konami to turn a profit on his games.  To the extent that my understanding of the situation is correct, I'd say they had no choice but to cut ties with him.  

I would've believed this scenario but we all know what Konami did to their other franchises. 

It also speaks magnitudes when your shift has focused from developing good games to fucking gambling(Pachinko machines). So yeah, anyone who still thinks that Konami is headed to a good direction is a huge corporate tool that Konami desperately needs.

I agree that Konami has changed direction significantly.  I haven't purchased any of their games in forever.  But, is that somehow wronging Kojima?  If he refused to do, or was incapable of doing what Konami wanted him to do, he's supposed to be fired.  That's how employment works.

DonFerrari said:
VAMatt said:

It occurred to me when the firing happened.  As I understand it, the guy burns through cash, refuses to take direction, and, consequently, made it very hard for Konami to turn a profit on his games.  To the extent that my understanding of the situation is correct, I'd say they had no choice but to cut ties with him.  

MGS games have made them profit... and if Kojima wasn't profitable they wouldn't have asked him to try Castlevania and ressurect Silent Hill.

Some companies look more at budgets than profits... anyway Konami done a very lousy job.

We don't know to what extent the games were profitable.  But, we have heard countless stories about his budget busting ways.  

potato_hamster said:
VAMatt said:

It occurred to me when the firing happened.  As I understand it, the guy burns through cash, refuses to take direction, and, consequently, made it very hard for Konami to turn a profit on his games.  To the extent that my understanding of the situation is correct, I'd say they had no choice but to cut ties with him.  

No. Konami turned a handsome profit on every single one of Kojima's projects as far as I know. MGSV (the game that got him fired) likely made its development costs back in its first week on sale. It sold a total of over 6 million copies not including the definitive edition released last year. Apparently the development cost was $80m. Conservatively assuming they made $25 per copy sold, that's a $70M profit. Even more if that $80 million development cost included Ground Zeroes.

A few yeara ago, there was a change in Konami's leadership, and one of the new heads was far more profit driven than his predecessors. He was unwilling to give Kojima the time to make the games the way Kojima saw fit, and the relationship between Konami and Kojima crumbled to a point where they made his work life a living hell and forced a release date on him, forcing him to release an unfinished game in MGS V. He then was fired after the project was finished, and left to join Sony,  who will gladly give Kojima everything he wanted from a publisher, and in return get great exclusives that are pretty much guaranteed to make a profit.  He'll probably never leave.

No pub makes anywhere near $25 average per game over the course of its lifetime.  They're only in that ballpark at the very beginning of a game's life.  A year later most games are selling for $30 or so, maybe $40 if its a big hit.  After royalties are paid to the platform holder, the retailer gets a cut, distribution costs, and the actual costs to make the physical product, the pub is making much less - more like $10.  Then, at year two, when games sell for $20, they're making pennies.