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Konami is a company familiar to all fans of Japanese video games. It has been under the radar of the media as of late, and for all the wrong reasons. A lot has been said and written about the poor working conditions, constant surveillance and the tense, uncomfortable atmosphere in the studios. The cancellation of Silent Hills, the latest sequel in the well-known IP despite P.T.'s great success left horror fans around the globe disappointed. The recent departure of Hideo Kojima was not the only one that hit the news - just yesterday we learned that Fox Engine's overseer Julien Merceron also left the studio. Today we hear about Konami once again, and again it's not good news.

According to Gameblog.fr's anonymous source, Konami has halted all development of AAA console titles with the exception of PES. This move falls in line with the company's plans to focus on mobile development, but it is not going to delay the release of Metal Gear Online planned for October 6th.

At present Konami did not release any statements regarding this rumour, however if it turns out to be true, it could mean that franchises we grew to love like Castlevania, Silent Hill or Metal Gear Solid will simply disappear from our console libraries. As a fan of the IP's above, and one that is currently engaged in a thorough playthrough of Metal Gear V: The Phantom Pain, this news saddens me greatly.

Source #1 (French)
Source #2 (IGN UK, English)

 

[NicEXE]

PES 16 is a brand new game. They got rid of all the scripted mechanics, the entire game runs on their new physics engine, everything happens organically, there are no scripted events, from tackles to shots, to ball hustles, everything happens with a sense of randomness that's true to reality.
So to answer your questions PES is a not a Legacy game with updated roster, its a brand new game with totally overhauled game engine, you will never see the same shot or same tackle twice. Its about as AAA as you'll ever get, its probably the last AAA soccer game. Konami's swan song to soccer.

They say the same for every new PES game though.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Call of Duty has been using the same engine since it first came out with gradual improvements along the way, is it not AAA? What about every Unreal Engine game in existence? What about Pokemon which changes engines only when it changes platforms? The fact that PES is a sports game doesn't negate the fact that it's AAA, I don't know what kind of gameplay innovation you expect from a game that has rigid real-life rules.

I don't consider Call of Duty and Pokemon AAA games. I didn't really liked UT3 (UT2K4 was lightyears better imho) but I am considering it as an AAA game.

 

[Vipera]

Because its the same exact game than last year's. The only thing different is the team/player roster.
I am willing to bet that they spend more money on 3d modeling rather than game-engine development.

You are wrong. Oh, you are so wrong. You are so wrong I bet you've never played any football videogame in your life.

PES is like FIFA: major changes happen from time to time, not every year. At worst (excluding Legacy editions), what change are the rosters, the AI, some small improvements to the engine and some new licensing. If you'd have looked up online before writing, which is something you didn't do, you'd know that PES 2016 is the "big update" version. The AI improved a lot, there is more freedom to editing and the ball-passing is better than ever. And let's not forget the engine, now the same as MGS V uses. Quite a big difference from the last year's.

Still, I think they should just give up. Nowhere as good as FIFA, lol.

 

[NicEXE]

You are wrong. Oh, you are so wrong. You are so wrong I bet you've never played any football videogame in your life.

PES is like FIFA: major changes happen from time to time, not every year. At worst (excluding Legacy editions), what change are the rosters, the AI, some small improvements to the engine and some new licensing. If you'd have looked up online before writing, which is something you didn't do, you'd know that PES 2016 is the "big update" version. The AI improved a lot, there is more freedom to editing and the ball-passing is better than ever. And let's not forget the engine, now the same as MGS V uses. Quite a big difference from the last year's.

Still, I think they should just give up. Nowhere as good as FIFA, lol.

I do live in Cyprus. This country eats, breathes, drinks, lives football*. Everyone here has a friend which "is the best PES/FIFA player in the island ever".
I know about both games and I have friends who actively play them yet the last one I played must have been FIFA 2004.

*the kind of game that the ball is manipulated with people's feet

 

[Vipera]

I do live in Cyprus. This country eats, breathes, drinks, lives football*. Everyone here has a friend which "is the best PES/FIFA player in the island ever".
I know about both games and I have friends who actively play them yet the last one I played must have been FIFA 2004.

*the kind of game that the ball is manipulated with people's feet

Things have changed a lot since 2004, you know. Both games use real physics, for example.

 

[FAST6191]

On the matter of same game, different engine then though there are cases of devs taking the piss somewhat I am not going to call it an inherently bad thing, indeed not reusing previously engineered items/designs that are still viable is considered a fundamental failing in every other aspect of engineering/development and even creative works -- so I have the set for my TV show, I will tear it down and rebuild every episode...

This is gonna happen more and more in the future.
AAA games are not very profitable outside of NA. In Asia the shift has been moving to casual cheaply produced MMOs and IOS games for decades.

AAA games cost too much $$$ to make and are not always profitable, its a high risk, low reward business. Even though we like some of these games, but Konami doesn't always earn a profit on them. The Silent Hill game with Del Toro would have almost certainly lost money for Konami, the thing would have been a massive beast that sucks up money, and the sales would have been mediocre at best.

You can tell that AAA are not profitable when Capcom says Street Fighter V would not be possible without Sony forking out most of the dev costs. When a game like Street Fighter is not profitable you know there's a problem

There is something very wrong with the current game industry, video games should not cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. In coming years there will be a huge reshuffling of gaming development, the industry has become too over inflated to be profitable for many involved.

Either they need to pay devs less, or shorten development periods on games, cause 100-200 even ridiculous 500 million budgets on games is not feasible in the long term. Konami is simply reacting to a shift in the business trend, they can't afford to blow 200 million on games in fact no video should ever cost 100 million to make EVER. Its a game, the costs for development should be cheap compared to cinema and other expensive media sectors. Something is very wrong with the game industry at present, most game industry insiders will tell you that most game studios are one or two flops away from bankruptcy.

Some interesting ideas in there, can't say I can get onboard entirely. On flops away from bankruptcy

You know what I would like? A massive 10 level factory with a floor size that of a small town, stuff with millions of pounds worth of machines, powered by a very large capacity power source and without much in the way of noise/pollution restrictions. I could make some truly incredible things that way. I do not have this though so I have to make do with my shed, a drill press and a whole bunch of hand and handheld power tools. There comes a point at which are you probably still too under equipped to make things happen but it does seem many in the game development world have forgotten this concept.
I like seeing the results of them spunking billions onto pushing the limits as some amazing things come out of that world, however I am also in it for the games and monstrously compelling games have been demonstrably created on rather small budgets.

On paying devs less... considering devs are supposed to be reasonably competent coders a lot of the time (they do supposedly make high performance code with a reasonably complex mathematical underpinning all using the harder computer languages for said speed) then they are already paying them bugger all compared to the IT industry at large, to say nothing of the awful conditions an lack of chance for promotion to anywhere. They probably could get away with it -- there are enough wide eyed kids coming out of schools and wanting in for them to pull it off but I am not sure that is a good thing.

I don't consider Call of Duty and Pokemon AAA games. I didn't really liked UT3 (UT2K4 was lightyears better imho) but I am considering it as an AAA game.

If you want to invent words/alternative meanings then by all means try -- it is kind of how the language evolves, however when people get confused when you try that for things with an existing general consensus on the meaning of the term then probably best not to be surprised.

 

[CathyRina]

I don't consider Call of Duty and Pokemon AAA games.

Just because you don't consider something AAA doesn't mean it's not a AAA game xD

 

[KSP]

They say the same for every new PES game though.

They do, but this time they mean it. PES 16 is Konami's last soccer game, so they bet the farm on this one.
Its the best soccer game ever made, period. All the players act like their real life counterpart, the physics engine makes every game unpredictable.
PES 16 actually does what they say it does.

 

[Radwan126]

Haha , mobile gaming you say ?
Pfft that's funny xD , mobile gaming killed the Vita , and it's going to kill Konami too , good luck !

 

[CathyRina]

Haha , mobile gaming you say ?
Pfft that's funny xD , mobile gaming killed the Vita , and it's going to kill Konami too , good luck !

the only thing that killed the Vita was Sony's incompetence. After all the 3DS is doing alright and is filling a very similar niche.

 

[KSP]

Haha , mobile gaming you say ?
Pfft that's funny xD , mobile gaming killed the Vita , and it's going to kill Konami too , good luck !

I don't like mobile gaming either. But AAA games cost too much to make, so unless they figure out how to bring that down, you'll see more studios close shop.
Its odd, that you can make a Transformers movie for about 150 million, yet you have games now costing upwards of 500 million to make?
How insane is that? The gaming industry is a huge bubble right now, and things are gonna burst any moment.

How any game can cost over 200 million to make is beyond me? Its a bunch of nerds sitting in a room programming, you're not blowing up cars, planes, you're not feeding 100,000 employees, you're not flying all over the world, you're not paying super stars massive salaries.
Gaming dev is basically just a bunch of programmers sitting in a room writing code, add a few execs, some cheap voice actors, some graphics artists and a QC team, that's it. How on Earth the gaming industry has allowed itself to balloon to such a massive over inflated money pit is beyond me.
You know you got problems when a game has more credits than the population of Slovakia. Really, you need to hire 2 million people to make a game? Has anyone ever sat down and read modern game credits? It's like every AAA game employs every man on Earth, twice.

Game industry's gotta adjust before its too late, stop spending 200 millon on games, don't employ every man on Earth for every game, for god sakes stop taking 2 decades to make a game, nothing should take that long aside from building the great wall of China.

 

[Radwan126]

I don't like mobile gaming either. But AAA games cost too much to make, so unless they figure out how to bring that down, you'll see more studios close shop.
Its odd, that you can make a Transformers movie for about 150 million, yet you have games now costing upwards of 500 million to make?
How insane is that? The gaming industry is a huge bubble right now, and things are gonna burst any moment.

How any game can cost over 200 million to make is beyond me? Its a bunch of nerds sitting in a room programming, you're not blowing up cars, planes, you're not feeding 100,000 employees, you're not flying all over the world, you're not paying super stars massive salaries.
Gaming dev is basically just a bunch of programmers sitting in a room writing code, add a few execs, some cheap voice actors, some graphics artists and a QC team, that's it. How on Earth the gaming industry has allowed itself to balloon to such a massive over inflated money pit is beyond me.
You know you got problems when a game has more credits than the population of Slovakia. Really, you need to hire 2 million people to make a game? Has anyone ever sat down and read modern game credits? It's like every AAA game employs every man on Earth, twice.

Game industry's gotta adjust before its too late, stop spending 200 millon on games, don't employ every man on Earth for every game, for god sakes stop taking 2 decades to make a game, nothing should take that long aside from building the great wall of China.

DAMN RIGHT BRUH ! couldn't be more true
i mean even indie games are costing the makers millions for no reason xD

the only thing that killed the Vita was Sony's incompetence. After all the 3DS is doing alright and is filling a very similar niche.

Yup , you said it , i mean the 3DS is doing pretty good in the market , when the Vita is getting buried by Sony day after day .
it would be the best if Sony abandoned the console completely so hackers can use it to the fullest

 

[Vipera]

I don't like mobile gaming either. But AAA games cost too much to make, so unless they figure out how to bring that down, you'll see more studios close shop.
Its odd, that you can make a Transformers movie for about 150 million, yet you have games now costing upwards of 500 million to make?
How insane is that? The gaming industry is a huge bubble right now, and things are gonna burst any moment.

How any game can cost over 200 million to make is beyond me? Its a bunch of nerds sitting in a room programming, you're not blowing up cars, planes, you're not feeding 100,000 employees, you're not flying all over the world, you're not paying super stars massive salaries.
Gaming dev is basically just a bunch of programmers sitting in a room writing code, add a few execs, some cheap voice actors, some graphics artists and a QC team, that's it. How on Earth the gaming industry has allowed itself to balloon to such a massive over inflated money pit is beyond me.
You know you got problems when a game has more credits than the population of Slovakia. Really, you need to hire 2 million people to make a game? Has anyone ever sat down and read modern game credits? It's like every AAA game employs every man on Earth, twice.

Game industry's gotta adjust before its too late, stop spending 200 millon on games, don't employ every man on Earth for every game, for god sakes stop taking 2 decades to make a game, nothing should take that long aside from building the great wall of China.

... You are joking, right? You must be.

However, just in case...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop

Excluding marketing costs, the most expensive one looks to be the Star Wars MMORPG, and the game has a fuckton of content. All of the other games are HUGE and with a fuckton of CGI. Have you ever watched a Pixar movie? Do you know how much a single frame of Toy Story 3 costs?

Gee, Pixar must be going bankrupt... Oh wait, they aren't. That's because there is always a profit, duh.

 

[KSP]

... You are joking, right? You must be.

However, just in case...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop

Excluding marketing costs, the most expensive one looks to be the Star Wars MMORPG, and the game has a fuckton of content. All of the other games are HUGE and with a fuckton of CGI. Have you ever watched a Pixar movie? Do you know how much a single frame of Toy Story 3 costs?

Gee, Pixar must be going bankrupt... Oh wait, they aren't. That's because there is always a profit, duh.

Cost about 80-100 million to do a Pixar movie including P&A (real cost not studio martian budgets), they gross anywhere between 500-1 billion internationally. Studio gets half the profit on box office, which means most Pixar movies make about 3-5x its investment.

AAA games cost anywhere between 100-500 million to make, few of them gross 1 billion in revenue.

There is a reason why Konami is getting out of AAA gaming, its not because they don't like money. Its cause they don't like losing $$$.

AAA games are over budgeted and major game studios need to adjust or die.

CGI animation is considered tent pole in the film world, they almost always triple their investment in net profit.
Same thing can't be said about AAA games sadly.

FYI Video games are cheaper than ever, and development costs are the highest they've ever been. 1990s had games retail at $50-60 MSRP go look at those old SEARS catalogues, they are still the same now, factor in inflation games used to cost $80-100 in todays standard, they used to cost a lot less to make. You do the math, cheaper games, higher development cost=industry bubble.

I'm gonna simplify things for you.

In the 90s Streets of Rage 2 for Genesis cost $64 MSRP and games cost millions to make.
In 2015 Destiny cost over 200 million to make, and Star Wars over 500 million to make and guess what both games MSRP at $60.

See the problem. Game cost 100x more to make, but cost the same to buy!!! Simple math the shit is a bubble.

 

[Muffins]

This seems like it may turn into an argument...

But it is worth mentioning that an $80 Sega Genesis game cartridge back then cost at least ten to manufacture, whereas the simple plastic platter of a bluray has a manufacturing cost of less than a dollar.

 

[grossaffe]

This seems like it may turn into an argument...

But it is worth mentioning that an $80 Sega Genesis game cartridge back then cost at least ten to manufacture, whereas the simple plastic platter of a bluray has a manufacturing cost of less than a dollar.

Also very worth mentioning is the much larger video game consumer base.

 

[KSP]

This seems like it may turn into an argument...

But it is worth mentioning that an $80 Sega Genesis game cartridge back then cost at least ten to manufacture, whereas the simple plastic platter of a bluray has a manufacturing cost of less than a dollar.

Also very worth mentioning is the much larger video game consumer base.

It's not gonna be an argument just a friendly debate at worst.

To answer your questions. You do not increase production cost of a product by 100x what it used to be just cause the COGS go down and the your userbase goes up. Just cause your cost of delivery goes down from 10 dollars to 2 dollars doesn't mean you should increase your development cost from a few million to 500 million.
It's like selling bread. Just cause the cost of my wheat goes down and my customer base increase doesn't mean you start to lace your bread with 24K gold and fly it first class in Air Emirates Jets.

What's happening now is gamers increased, cost of delivery decreased, but your product is still sold at the same if not less value than back in the 90s, but somehow your cost of development has increased by 100 folds. There is no business that can survive this illogical trend.

Basically your selling the same game to more customers at around the same price, but your game now costs 100x more to make. Increased userbase and decreased COGS don't allow you to increase production cost by 100 folds in any business.

 

[grossaffe]

It's not gonna be an argument just a friendly debate at worst.

To answer your questions. You do not increase production cost of a product by 100x what it used to be just cause the COGS go down and the your userbase goes up. Just cause your cost of delivery goes down from 10 dollars to 2 dollars doesn't mean you should increase your development cost from a few million to 500 million.
It's like selling bread. Just cause the cost of my wheat goes down and my customer base increase doesn't mean you start to lace your bread with 24K gold and fly it first class in Air Emirates Jets.

What's happening now is gamers increased, cost of delivery decreased, but your product is still sold at the same if not less value than back in the 90s, but somehow your cost of development has increased by 100 folds. There is no business that can survive this illogical trend.

Basically your selling the same game to more customers at around the same price, but your game now costs 100x more to make. Increased userbase and decreased COGS don't allow you to increase production cost by 100 folds in any business.

Raising the price on your games will not guarantee increased revenues. It runs the risk of consumers passing up your game at release due to being overpriced and waiting for it to drop in price, at which point many will have moved on and spent their money on a different game and the hype is no longer fresh for your game.

 

[CathyRina]

70€/60$ is already a little overpriced tbh.

 

[grossaffe]

70€/60$ is already a little overpriced tbh.

Given the quality of game we've been getting for that price, I agree. There are games worth the price, but not many.

 

[Meteor7]

Konami, sell your franchises! Let Igarashi buy Castlevania! (if he wants it, that is) Let Kojima buy Boktai! Hell, let ME buy Boktai! Please, before you implode, release your beloved IPs and talented developers before you waste them! T^T