IN:Gen - Reviewing the rise and fall of key development houses in this Generation
Taking our second look at a major games making company we continue our review of how the current generation has fared for some companies that find themselves transitioning to new machines in a different position in the market than they began the generation at. The aim remains to be to cast a glance over the last few years direction and to highlight areas of where each company made good decisions and poor ones as we share our opinion on what we think each company should be planning to do in the future.
The second company to face the scurtiny of IN:Gen is:
Konami
During the course of the previous generation Konami had seen several major successes. From the running Pro Evolution Soccer series, the brief revival in fortunes of the Castlevania franchise and absorbing Hudsonsoft through to overseeing one of the biggest franchises in gaming with Metal Gear Solid that was soon to release its cross generation fifth mainline modern era entry.
Things fell apart quickly though as new President Hayakawa hard steered the company away from game development and towards the mobile market following his belated belief that the mobile market was where the gaming market was shifting despite the honeymoon era being close to an end. His approach fractured the already well worn relationship with Hideo Kojima leading to the shutdown of the studio that oversaw the company's crown jewel franchise. Konami moved from struggling to work out how to best handle its popular franchises like Bomberman and Silent Hill to simply not trying at all and almost overnight several series came to an end with only the occasional licensed media offering suggesting they lived on in some form.
The Brands
Currently Konami's main focus remains the long running Dance Dance Revolution series that still sees new arcade updates despite the franchises golden era being long since passed and the arcade scene being so limited these days. Before this Metal Gear would be considered the biggest of Konami's franchises. However on console the current surviving key franchise is Pro Evolution Soccer, still battling on despite the dominance of its EA made rival.
Metal Gear Solid
Regardless of whether you thought the fifth game was one of the greatest games of the generation or a disappointing epilogue to the previous entries, the strength of the franchise was huge. It had begun a process of morphing from the linear stealth adventures of the first four titles to a more open dynamic form that reflected how Kojima had grown restless of how much time he spent with Snake. With the collapse of the studio though Konami has only made one more attempt at providing a Metal Gear title with the poorly received and performing Survive which suggested that the company had little chance of knowing how to handle the franchise without Kojima's involvement.
Silent Hill
A franchise that had struggled since the PS2 era, none the less it was a regular force during the following generation either through rereleases or new attempts to tap into the success previous entries had enjoyed. The franchise has remained dormant for an entire generation though, Konami neither internally developing or licensing out the franchise to try and capitalise on the revived fortunes of the horror genre in various forms.
Revived in strong form on the PS3/360 era consoles and then slaughtered with a troubled sequel, the franchise has also seen itself largely buried ever since bar its license being used by Netflix to produce the current running animated show.
Bomberman
Perhaps the closest to a revival we've seen is Super Bomberman R, a belated sequel to the SNES era games that proved a success if small scale experience. Likely to inspire a sequel in some similar form, this saw the bomber return even if we're still a far cry from the Konami days of old.
When arguably Konami's most prolific release of the generation is a short corridor walking demo for cancelled horror game P.T you find yourself with a company that now occupies an awkward space. Konami finds itself still existing within the gaming space but now so far out on the fringes that it is dangerously close to irrelevance. It's also found itself dogged by controversy since Hayakawa took control, accused of attempting to restrict ex-employees ability to find new work after leaving the company either through resume limitations, pressurising legal action on other companies that employee ex-Konami staff or in one instance forcing an ex-employee to close his new personal business.
Despite this, the leaner and less productive Konami has proven to be much more profitable a business than it used to be which has entrenched the company deeper into its practices. With another shift in the market coming up it remains hard to predict Konami's future plans within the traditional space.
Where has Konami gone right and wrong in this generation and in the one to come, will we see them continue their current profitable path or are they laying the foundations of future failure?
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