Konami main focus to mobile gaming

[Mariano]

Here is the topic in NEOGAF:


http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1046059


All the gaming world is talking about this.

[CrazyT]

That honestly read like a parody. Cant believe its actually real

[George]

Sadly wish Konami would mix in some paid games and even if they want to make it free it should be free with ads, but let us BUY the game without ads. I think games like FTL, Monument Valley, and Minecraft have shown that full priced games can make decent money.

Shit games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope have done the 'ad' free to play or pay a dollar for your game.

I remember Angry Birds saying it made over 200 million in 2012 on just the ads:
http://www.businessinsider.com/angry-birds-made-200-million-in-2012-2013-4

But we shall see, I think everyone wants to get those microtransactions and make games based around that. You can only do so many.

[Berto]

Ain't SEGA like this too nowadays?

[George]

Yes and no. They did say there will be 20 packaged titles overseas by the end of the financial year. That is a increase. Also regardless their package/digital sales ended up 50/50. I doubt SEGA will leave console game. They already said Isolation team is working on another game, Sonic Team has their game and Yakuza team is still going to make a new PS4 game.

The issue with SEGA is they need to build more Japanese studios, but Japan is all into mobile gaming. See console sales in Japan.

Also:

[Mariano]

I dont think any japanese company will 100% leave the console market. Is still a good market in the west, and you cant put all your eggs in one bag.

[George]

I agree, tho something needs to happen in the console space, ESPECIALLY in Japan. AAA budgets are too much and the return isn't as much as it was say in the PS2 era where everyone was buying Japanese games.

[Nirmugen]

When the medium-term games where out of the public eye, JP devs felt the backlash and only few found little success with one IP working as AAA for the best or worst case scenario. Konami was one that suffered from that and with Kojima being a Executive Producer (just like Naka, Inafune, Igarashi and others) ,do whatever he wanted to do plus the company bad decisions it made things worse.

After all, I think they don't leave the Console market but their response just got so wrong that I don't know why they're doing more damage than control.

Anyway, don't think this is over.

[Trippled]

Ain't SEGA like this too nowadays?

For the bottomline yes, but their most advertised main focus seems to be the cross-platform strategy (PSO2)

[MadeManG74]

I dont think any japanese company will 100% leave the console market. Is still a good market in the west, and you cant put all your eggs in one bag.

I think some will if they have other ventures. Konami makes a lot of money from gambling machines/resorts etc, so it would make sense for them to cut the home gaming division to focus on more profitable areas.
 
It's not going to be a mass exodus, but I'd expect to see more publishers shrink their console/home gaming divisions.

[pirovash88]

Mobile is where the future of gaming lies.

Such a depressing statement to make.

I understand that they want to be profitable, but how exactly was MGS while being run with Kojima not profitable?

[MadeManG74]

Such a depressing statement to make.

I understand that they want to be profitable, but how exactly was MGS while being run with Kojima not profitable?

It was profitable, but took years to make a game, and the budget ran into the millions of dollars.

You could make a profitable mobile phone game in less than a year and for a fraction of the cost.

[Nirmugen]

In that spare of time they could push new IP's,try to reviving old with modest budget and Marketing, do some fanservice games (a la ASRT for ex.) and many things more but Kojima money was Kojima money,so PES was the "solution" although that happen in the bad years (2008-2013) and the reemergence of FIFA as a "fun" game (2008-2012).

The things was not being profitable,it was being marketable and stabilize the cash investments within the company year to year to keep the R&D on point. Remember the crazy Doritos- Mountain Dew JP Only content for Peace Walker? There is a reason behind that which ultimately cancel that deal for the West in an already abandoned console (PSP).

The same thing I could say about Sega-Sammy although SOJ got it right "for their public" and SOA screwed it all the time.

In the opposite site, Capcom do those things but more than they can afford and now they are paying the errors.

[George]

Such a depressing statement to make.

I understand that they want to be profitable, but how exactly was MGS while being run with Kojima not profitable?

Good question, according to online:

Metal Gear Solid sold over 6 million units.
Metal Gear Solid 2 sold over 7 million units.
Metal Gear Solid 3 sold over 3.6 million units (lowest selling game)
Metal Gear Solid 4 sold over 4.3 million units

While the sales aren't bad at all, you have to understand that Metal Gear Solid games continue to grow more and more expensive. For example: Metal Gear Solid 5 will have its own engine that Kojima build over 5 years and he replaced a cheaper voice actor (David Hayter) with Kiefer Sutherland.

I can totally see why a company would think investing more money in a title that continues to sell less with each entry would be bad and I can totally see why Kojima would disagree with management on this. In the end of the day all  higher ups see is that their MGS games sell less, cost more and Kojima continues to make it worse by getting Hollywood talent.

[Jumbomax]

Are there even any Konami games that they could have as a mobile game?