So he's going to be able to come back and make a game with the amount of characters so high... it'll destroy the world?

Yes. His cancer will be sucked.

They, like most Japanese studios, are a shadow of their former selves (see also: Square-Enix).

 Sadly,  Japanese publishers will slowly  die (  most of them at least).

Only if they bring back games like Hybrid Heaven and Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon. That or if Arcades make a comeback and Konami creates another fad like Dance Revolution. Ha! Asians...

I actually liked the new Castlevania. Of course it is a blatant GoW clone in every single aspect, but the game is long and enjoyable.

But they need to save PES, Contra and Silent Hill. Castlevania needs more focus and marketing. Right now, they are just doing right the Metal Gear series.

I believe they did that just because they only have MG doing good now. So the started a spin off with Rising and realised that MGS V wouldn't be ready for 2014 as MGS usually takes a lot of dev time. So they probably asked Kojima do split the first chapters on a separated game to cash in right in 2014. 

Just to clarify. DMC could never be a GOW ripp off as its the father of the modern action game. Seriously, this genre has not evolved since. Lament of Innocence is definitely a DMC clone though. 

I very nearly have as many Konami games as Nintendo one's on my NES and SNES and a decent number on PSone and N64.

Since PS2 I've only bought:

MGS 2 - made by Kojima Productions
Contra: Shattered Soldier - actually made by KCET
MGS 3- made by Kojima Productions
Gradius V - made by Treasure
MGS 4 - made by Kojima Productions
Gradius ReBirth - made by M2
Contra ReBirth - made by M2
Castlevania ReBirth - made by M2
Castlevania Lord of Shadows - made by Mercury Steam

I know Kojima Productions is a subsidiary of Konami but they may as well be their own company. The success they've had mean they probably don't get anyone at Konami questioning anything they do.

Anyway looking at that list I've played ONE game actually made buy Konami in the last 14ish years which definitely pales in comparison to the hey day of NES/SNES/PS1/2.

This is not true. Western developers would die off at a much faster rate than Japan. This is because of the how stingy(word I wanted to use slipped my mind) Japanese companies are with budgets vs western, which allows them to make games that can profit under 1milion or just in one region. Western developed games tend to have million upon million upon million thrown at development and in return need million upon million upon milions to reach profit. Examples are Tomb Raider, LA Noir, Haze. We used to have member who kept track of publishers, developers closure and west was like 3 times as many as Japan. The game of Russian Roulette that western developers play will ruin them. At worst Japanese companies will just be Japan only, stagnant.