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Forums - Gaming - Has Konami redeemed themselves?

 

Has Konami redeemed themselves (like Capcom’s redemption arc)?

Yes, Konami is back 3 11.11%
 
No, but they’re making progress 18 66.67%
 
No, not even close 5 18.52%
 
No, I’ll never forgive ... 1 3.70%
 
Total:27

Not yet. Loving seeing them slowly but surely crawling their way back, but there haven’t been any games yet released that have had me go “Konami is so back!!!”

Enjoyable games, but they’ve been primarily focusing on collections and remakes/remasters with the occasional new release, which they are now starting to ramp up on as mentioned in the OP.

I am hoping they really floor me over the next few years to truly decide if they’ve redeemed themselves



You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind

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JackHandy said:

They killed MGS. Unless they hire Kojima back and let him do his thing, or give him his baby back for free (as they should), I'll always be anti-Konami.

Kojima wanted out of MGS as much as Konami wanted Kojima gone. He had wanted to work on other things for a while but Konami kept saying no. I think he's happier exploring new games than tied down to one series forever. 



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

Kyuu said:

Prime Konami are my favorite "developers" of all time. I like current Konami but they're not even remotely comparable to what they used to be. They're approaching good/decent developers to make their games for them, which is better than letting all these awesome IP's rot, but it isn't the same as developing the games yourself.

They're taking steps in the right direction, but no I don't view that as redemption. I am however really surprised at how much eFootball (which is developed in-house) improved over the years and how big it is becoming!

At this point I'd like Konami to really push eFootball into partnership with major soccer clubs/leagues and hollow out EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), especially now that EA is owned by Prince Bone Saw. 



They are showing promising signs, but are still not all the way back. MGS was actually the Konami property I cared the least about, and I have never thought that Kojima was entirely blameless in the drama of his breakup with Konami. Rather, I want to see 3D Castlevania make a comeback, and that could start with a Castlevania 3D collection (64, LoD, LoI, and CoD). I want to see Ganbare Goemon come back. I'd like to see Suikoden make a comeback, maybe under the development of Rabbit and Bear Studios. I'd like Konami to wrest control of video soccer away from the Saudi royal family, even though I don't really follow soccer much, and I'd also like to see Konami and 2K try to compete against Madden, which is also under the Saudi royal family. I'd like to see Bomberman become a major franchise once more.

And if we must have licensed games, Konami was actually the best at those, too, with the exception of Marvel vs. Capcom. The Simpsons were in better hands with Konami than they were with Acclaim, Activision, and EA. My favorite Marvel game is the X-Men arcade game. They even had a long-forgotten Aliens arcade game that was quite fun.

That said, Konami is a pretty large company in Japan. Video games are just the face of Konami we saw the most of outside of Japan. Kojima, to put it bluntly, was not as good a ROI as most of Konami's other product/business lines. Among the legacy video game companies in Japan, they are still the third largest in market cap behind Nintendo and Bandai Namco - and they're not far behind Bandai Namco. Unlike Capcom, which had to get good or die, Konami could afford to step away from the console industry.

My hope is that they'll follow in the footsteps of companies like Sega and SNK, companies which also stepped away from video games to varying degrees in the last decade, and see the value in video games again. Konami potentially has a lot to bring to the table in the gaming world - if that potential is used well.



Absolutely not. So far they've just been increasingly milking their best-known IPs. They've done it quite respectfully, but that's essentially what they've done. I guess with Silent Hill it looks like they'll be releasing new stuff rather than resorting to pure milking, but even that they want to be doing yearly, so that kind of goes into the milking category. It's all quite respectful for what it is, but it's still milking. Personally I wouldn't call that redemption.



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Never really felt like they needed redemption myself. It just sucked that they moved away from console games for a while, but I think they are doing pretty well these days.



Well they will give us Yu Gi Oh Tag Force 3 remake with newer GX cards so they are 50% there, now if they also give Tag Force 6 same treatment then when it comes to me they are redeemed.
They finally started to give people what they want instead of what suits want.
Now if they only can bring PES back.



Leynos said:
JackHandy said:

They killed MGS. Unless they hire Kojima back and let him do his thing, or give him his baby back for free (as they should), I'll always be anti-Konami.

Kojima wanted out of MGS as much as Konami wanted Kojima gone. He had wanted to work on other things for a while but Konami kept saying no. I think he's happier exploring new games than tied down to one series forever. 

You're right about the part of him wanting out of the franchise, but he later had a change of heart. Here is what he said about it:

And then I was looking on the internet, and I get so many messages from people saying, “Please make another Metal Gear!” I wasn’t really interested, because Metal Gear is the past. I want to do something new. But I saw so many people requesting it. And I was thinking, maybe I only have 10 years left. Of course, I can’t make Metal Gear — that’s Konami’s IP. But I was thinking, “Okay, maybe I should create a new action espionage game.” And I started to think about this new concept.

Based on that, it's clear the guy would have given us another MGS, he just wasn't allowed because Konami thinks it's their's. As if they could have created it without him, or something.



Not until they release Gradius VI (most disappointing game cancellation of Gen 7 for me) and a Gradius HD Collection that includes all the games, arcade & console versions, including Gradius V. And when I say I want a new Gradius game, I'm not talking about the shorter titles with older-style graphics like Rebirth or Salamander III. No, I want something like Gradius V that was a true next-gen Gradius game that took advantage of the newer hardware. I want something that would look like Treasure had made a full-fledged game using modern tech.



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SanAndreasX said:

Unlike Capcom, which had to get good or die, Konami could afford to step away from the console industry.

Actually, Japan laws have recently clamped down on gambling, which naturally dried up their pachinko business and kinda forced their hand back into the gaming business legit. Unfortunately, the old management gutting their in-house team for pachinko kinda limits their ability to actually make good games themselves again like they used to in the glory days, but they’re still doing a good job outsourcing and coordinating overseas devs to make their games for them. And regardless of who’s actually making them, at the end of the day, they still plopped down the money to get them made and had a producer in-house work with and manage the external devs (competently), so they still deserve some kind of credit as much as some people want to hold that against them (“they’re outsourcing their games!”).

I was super happy to see Capcom killing it again (Monster Hunter World put them back in good financial health and it shows) and I’m pulling for Konami to continue to do good things with their IPs being that I grew up with a lot of franchises from both even if they’re still hampered by the old management pursuing pachinko. Last year marked the first 2 Konami games I’ve bought in over a decade (I think you know what they are), that certainly counts for something and next month, they have a retro-style Castlevania game coming out that looks good.

I’ll just say this: they really want to win people back? Remake Metal Gear 1 and 2. It won’t be cheap (it’ll basically be making a whole new Metal Gear game from scratch since they won’t be able to reuse anything from the OGs being that they came out on the NES), but it’ll really go a long way in restoring goodwill from fans plus the money trailer shot of Snake fighting Big Boss in 3D will certainly entice buyers in ways no new Metal Gear game from this company (MGS6?) can. Snake vs. Big Boss in the trailer with real cutscenes and 3D visuals and actual VAs voicing them? Come on, you can’t tell me that wouldn’t be a hype machine.

Last edited by KManX89 - on 24 September 2026


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