Konami historically has been seen as one of the big key developers of gaming in Japan. Right along with Square, Capcom, Namco, and Sega. Like those four, Konami has a stable of historically important franchises. However, unlike the other four, Konami seems to not have the same level of care about their history. Take for example Castlevania. We haven't seen a new Castlevania game that wasn't a collection package since the end days of the PS3/ 360 era, with Lords of Shadow 2.

To make matters even stranger. We have animated series based off the franchise, and indie games making Castlevania-esque games. So my question is why is Konami leaving everyone else to carry a legacy they themselves should be doing?

Yeah, I dont know. Same with Capcom and Mega Man. They just dont know what to do with the IPs I guess, so they just release compilations of old games.

They tend to read things into sales that we don't. A game sells bad because it wasn't wanted and not any other reason

Normally, I'd agree with that.

But the problem here is they not only put out compilations of the older games. They also have netflix making animated series on the franchise. It's not like people don't know Castlevania is a game first and foremost. If they don't want to make a new game in the franchise, why let Dead Cells have an entire DLC based on the franchise along with the netflix show, KNOWING it's going to spark fans interest in a new game?

...What's the old saying about Konami being the worst? It certainly doesn't help that I've gotten the impression that Konami isn't really acting on western reactions as much so what goes on outside of Japan doesn't seem to be important to them all that much. 

I mean they just had a Silent Hill blow out recently so it's not like they care about nothing either.

I think their stance got better now than they were at during the 8th gen, but there's a massive gap in the video game space from them due to being meddle the antics of corporatism at it's finest.

At least, the licensing leading to actual good products is a plus for us.

I'd like to take this opportunity to share a thought. I finished Castlevania Lords of Shadow just two weeks ago and it never felt anything like a Castlevania game at all. To me it is a grotesque Frankenstein between God of War, Assassin's Creed, Shadow of the Colossus and the movie Pan's Labyrinth. It heavily borrows from popular games of the time while delivering nothing new on its own. It has no own identity to me. It is also littered with quick time events to make it worse. Yes, the soundtrack is great, but it doesn't sound like Castlevania. Yes, the visuals look good, but it doesn't look like Castlevania. For some reason it sold very well, though, probably because it has the Castlevania name tucked onto it. If it was an original title it would have been forgotten in no time.

There are a few IPs in gaming that are extremely beloved and this makes it seem like they sold amazingly well. Nintendo's Metroid is the most obvious example of this, but Capcom's Mega Man and Konami's Castlevania fall in the same category.

Making a new game isn't easy when management has this idea of mandatory high production values for its games. It quickly leads to the conclusion that there's no good return of investment when the game needs to sell 2m+ copies at least, but the historic sales data for the series just isn't there to make that look realistic. Hence why legacy releases and collaborations with other companies are all we get, because the IPs still have a lot of value.

It takes talent to make great games on reasonable budgets. The AAA publishers of today are for the most part not capable of this anymore, because they've circumvented the need for talent by simply outspending smaller competitors for software sales. There's a reason why AAA games often feel soulless. All too often they are just mediocre games lifted up by production values. Graphics sell, that's nothing new. But the industrialisation of everything has made this much more widespread than it used to be in the 1990s and 2000s.

This is a fair point. And you're right about it not feeling like a Castlevania game. But the reason for that is that originally, it wasn't. Lord of Shadow was actually meant to be it's own thing. Castlevania's name was slapped on to help it sell and the story was reworked to try to fit Castlevania lore

Keep in mind it only feels that way because it is that way.