It’s been announced today by a executive at Konami that the company will be focusing on mobile games as they move forwards. Smartphone will be considered as the “main platform” of Konami.
According to an interview summary that was translated by a NeoGAF forum user, the company’s new CEO Hideki Hayakawa confirmed that the company would be moving to mobile gaming and will not focus on making Triple A titles in the future. The interview was originally uploaded in Japanese to Nikkei Trendy Net.
The full translation is worth reading:
“We will pursue mobile games aggressively,” says Konami’s new CEO Hayakawa in an interview with Nikkei Trendy Net.
“Our main platform will be mobiles. Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like “items” to selling things like “features.”
“We saw with these games that even people who buy physical games are motivated to buy extra content. The success of Power pro especially has motivated us to actively push more of our popular series onto mobile than ever before.”
“Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies.”
“We hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too.”
“With multiplatform games, there’s really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world.”
There is no telling yet what will happen to Konami’s Triple A titles such as Metal Gear, from the sounds of it they plan to integrate Metal Gear with mobile gaming somehow. Perhaps they will sell their rights to the Triple A and B-Title games they own so that other developers can continue the series or maybe they actually will move most of their series into mobile games.
This is a big leap for Konami, one of the oldest names in video game history, especially after all the negativity they’ve been receiving lately. The future of Konami right now is uncertain and their ‘old’ franchises may not be included in the future the company is looking towards.
Do you think Konami has made a good or terrible decision? Let us know in the comments!