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[Phrozenflame500]

Honestly, this just validates the "rumours" in that video. A sensible company would have ignored it (or better yet, not do the stupid bullshit Konami has done to Kojima), as all this does is draw more publicity to it.

 

[Sir Blaming]

Ah, there it is:

 

[SURGEdude]

Konami is just shameless. They are just so over the top.

 

[Impala26]

Yeah, the issue is this is beyond simply being greedy, which most corporations suffer from. Konami is burning their entire console gaming division to the ground. We are watching them setting their own house on fire, destroying all the IPs with it, and all we could do is watch, because in the end there is nothing we could do to stop them. They don't need our money anymore, they don't need our good will either. They are just torching it because they want to piss in the ashes. We are seeing a company blowing up part of itself out of pure maliciousness.

Konami no longer give a shit. This is insanity, but insanity that we have no way of combating. I feel hopeless, really. There is nothing any of us can do.

TOP POST right here.

It's the utter helplessness that makes me sick to my stomach--no boycott, petition, or anything can really change the course Konami has set in motion for themselves. This is just an awful situation for the culture of video games as a whole.

 

[liquidtmd]

It's bizarre in terms of my experience internally when companies move out of given industries to restructure and focus on others, there's usually a fully comprehensive top down cascade for a co-ordinated process review amongst all departments to make the transition smooth, in synch and to ensure the public relations message firm but fair to all.

Konamis process: Cancel what we were working on, make sure no-one comments about anything, don't release formal statements outlining our plan and make sure the PR team don't engage with anyone about anything unless absolutely required.

Whaaaaaa

 

[Artex]

This is funny how poorly they are handling all of this. I don't think they really care, though.

I will remember how I once loved you, Konami.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiPon8lr48U&feature=youtu.be&t=160

 

[kyoya]

WANTS TO BE JUST LIKE

PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS

Universal's greatest hit game was Mr. Do! in 1982, which spawned three sequels. Other games include the hugely influential platform game Space Panic (1980) and the maze game Lady Bug (1981). Cashing-in on the success of laserdisc video games, Universal released Super Don Quix-ote in 1984, on a new standardized laserdisc video game system they called the Universal System 1.

In 2000, Aruze bought out SNK Corporation, maker of the Neo-Geo. In exchange for the use of SNK's popular characters on their pachinko and slot machines, and a few games for the Neo-Geo, Aruze promised financial backing for the failing SNK. Instead Aruze instituted a program to liquidate SNK's assets and cut costs. This included licensing out popular IP to other companies (Metal Slug series, The King of Fighters series, Sengoku series), closing underperforming divisions, discontinuing distribution outside of Japan, ending support for the Neo Geo arcade platform and selling off warehoused inventory. By 2001 it was clear to many SNK's employees that Aruze was not planning to preserve SNK and was simply going to let the company implode after liquidating most of its useful assets. So Eikichi Kawasaki and many other executives from SNK left to form Playmore in August 2001. Over this period many rank and file employees left to join other arcade developers or form their own companies.

In October 2001 Aruze allowed SNK to file for bankruptcy and all of its assets went up for bidding. Kawasaki's Playmore stepped in and bought up most of the auctioned assets and set itself up to re-enter the video game market as the successor to SNK. Playmore also acquired some of the companies formed by ex-SNK employees, namely Brezzasoft and Noise Factory, to jumpstart development of more titles for the Neo Geo arcade system. Playmore quickly went about re-establishing themselves in the market; they opened new branches in North America and Europe, announced development of new titles for the Neo Geo arcade system, started developing games for console and portable systems for the first time in years and re-established distribution channels to sell inventory for the Neo Geo home and pocket systems. To further establish themselves as a reborn SNK they officially changed their name to SNK Playmore in 2003.

In October 2002, Aruze was sued by SNK Playmore founder Eikichi Kawasaki for copyright infringement over SNK's intellectual properties, claiming their use was unauthorized by Playmore. In January 2004, a preliminary decision was handed down by the Osaka District Court favoring SNK Playmore and was awarded 5.64 billion yen (USD $57,627,468) in damages.

Universal/Aruze shuts down Sacnoth/Nautilus (developers of Shadow Hearts) in 2007:

Aruze Entertainment took control of Sacnoth after SNK folded in 2000. Sacnoth changed their name to Nautilus for the development of the sequel Shadow Hearts and future video games. However, in early 2007 Aruze publicly announced dissolving Nautilus and various creative members have since left the company and had joined AQ Interactive subsidiary feelplus (now merged into Marvelous AQL).

In addition Universal/Aruze also shut down game developer SETA in 2008:

"Based on the deterioration of economic conditions within Japan as caused by the current international financial crisis, Seta came to the conclusion that the continuation of its business on its own would be difficult, and thereby resolved its dissolution and liquidation."

This all just sounds so familiar. Konami wants to be EXACTLY like Universal - a company that exited the video game business for the casino gambling equipment and casino resort business. Universal owns 21% of Wynn Resorts.

Universal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Entertainment_Corporation

SETA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETA_Corporation

Sacnoth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacnoth

 

[Breakfast at Noon]

Ah, there it is:

Fantastic.
i have honestly cancled my pre order, i will sit and play Destiny: Comet instead.

 

[Needlecrash]

This is just very sad and angering. Most of us grew up playing many Konami games and enjoyed them. Now, they are a mere shadow of their former selves. Castlevania, TMNT and DDR were my favorite franchises from them.

 

[mrlion]

"...and more recently Nintendo announced that it will be creating games for the [mobile] platform as well."

Huh? No they haven't. They announced that they'll support the platform further but they didn't explicitly say that they're making games for it.

 

[Breakfast at Noon]

"...and more recently Nintendo announced that it will be creating games for the platform as well."

Huh? No they haven't. They announced that they'll support the platform further but they didn't explicitly say that they're making games for it.

Wait.. what?

 

[Mufausa The 3rd]

So it's either supporting the grey market or supporting Konami?

Both options suck tbh.

Beats piracy tho..

 

[Justified]

Honestly, this just validates the "rumours" in that video. A sensible company would have ignored it (or better yet, not do the stupid bullshit Konami has done to Kojima), as all this does is draw more publicity to it.

Probably has more to do with P.T than "validating" the claims, if I had to guess.

 

[lazer_bean]

i called it (the removal of PT from youtube)

Next step is they take it off youtube.
And then the alphabet

Spoiler

and hen he alhabe

 

[jwhit28]

Yeah, the issue is this is beyond simply being greedy, which most corporations suffer from. Konami is burning their entire console gaming division to the ground. We are watching them setting their own house on fire, destroying all the IPs with it, and all we could do is watch, because in the end there is nothing we could do to stop them. They don't need our money anymore, they don't need our good will either. They are just torching it because they want to piss in the ashes. We are seeing a company blowing up part of itself out of pure maliciousness.

Konami no longer give a shit. This is insanity, but insanity that we have no way of combating. I feel hopeless, really. There is nothing any of us can do.

Just have to circumvent Konami entirely.

 

[Blue_Moon]

That Focus on Pachingko Machines is Real LMAOOOOOOOOO

 

[Bomber Bob]

fuck off Konami

 

[sappyday]

Christ what a terrible company.

 

[Stallion Dan]

So how long until they take offline the MGSV servers and MP is dead? A month after the last DLC map pack?

 

[Doosi]

guys remember when konami was good

 

[ChosenPredator]

Yeah, this is undeniable..go ahead gaming media have a fiesta with konami, go ham.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

"...and more recently Nintendo announced that it will be creating games for the [mobile] platform as well."

Huh? No they haven't. They announced that they'll support the platform further but they didn't explicitly say that they're making games for it.

????


They ARE going to make mobile (phones/tablets) games.

 

[fabricated backlash]

It's quite clear that Konami has no interest in the videogame market anymore, and thus keeps restructuring accordingly.

That in itself would still suck for fans, but at least it would make business sense.
But the petty way they're going about it is what pisses me off. And I'm not even a fan of their games (except for Silent Hill)

 

[Mifec]

Beats piracy tho..

Well obv, Kojima doesn't deserve to have his game pirated, no dev does.

 

[Vlodril]

well if nothing else he will gain a few subs. watched some of his reviews they are quite good.

 

[Calabi]

So what are Konami actually claiming? Can they keep the video and any copies removed permanently?

 

[Pyramid head]

It's one thing for Konami to want to withdraw from the video game market because they can make easier money elsewhere, but the way they seem intent on obliterating their video game division in the messiest way possible is bizarre.

 

[JehutyRunner]

We are formless. We are the very discipline and morality that gamers invoke so often. How can anyone hope to eliminate us? As long as video games exist, so will we. Don't you know that our plans have your interests - not ours - in mind? The birth of three dimensional entertainment was completed late last century. As a result, the evolution of game design lay open to us. We started with simple geometry, but in the end we achieved near photorealism itself.

But, there are things not covered by photorealism.

Human memories, ideas. Culture. History. Polygons don't contain any record of human history. Is it something that should not be passed on? Should that information be left at the mercy of nature? We've always kept records of our lives. Through words, pictures, symbols... from tablets to books... But not all the information was inherited by later generations. A small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then passed on. Not unlike genes, really.

But in the current, digitized world, trivial information is accumulating every second, preserved in all its triteness. Never fading, always accessible. Rumors about petty issues, downgrades, slander... all this junk data preserved in an unfiltered state, growing at an alarming rate. It will only slow down gaming progress, reduce the rate of evolution. You seem to think that our plan is one of censorship. What we propose to do is not to control content, but to create context. The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards development of convenient half-truths.

Just look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you.

Billions spent on yearly installments of games where you murder other humans.

Criminals have more digital rights than legitimate consumers.

Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to revive dead, bloated franchises.

Everyone grows up being told the same thing. Be nice to other people... but beat out the competition!

You're special. Believe in yourself and you will succeed. But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed.

You exercise your right to post and this is the result. All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The untested truths spun by different interests to churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems. Everyone withdraws into their own small, gated community threads, afraid of the larger forum. They stay inside their little ponds, leaking whatever "truth" suits them into the growing cesspool of NeoGAF at large. The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is invalidated, but nobody is right. Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth".

And this is the way gaming ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

We're trying to stop that from happening. It's our responsibility as a publisher. Just as in genetics, unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out to stimulate the evolution of the medium. Who else could wade through the sea of garbage you people produce, retrieve valuable truths and even interpret their meaning for later generations?

That's what it means to create context.

Your responsibility as a publisher?
Is this from one of the MG games?

It's paraphrasing the final codec call between Raiden and The Patriots at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2.

 

[PillarEN]

guys remember when konami was good

Maybe, but I remember them more recently for being extreeeeeeeeeeeme.

 

[Stainless]

Ah, there it is:

Source on that comic strip? lol so many uses for that one!

 

[StarCreator]

Does DDR team being merged mean that BEMANI will be killed off as well?
;_;

The statements alleged in the video imply to me that they've merged all the separate Bemani teams into a single department, if they were even operating independently in the first place. Doesn't sound like a change in the status quo to me, honestly, unless you really don't care for all the cross-game events they've been doing for the past year.

 

[stan423321]

I'm only a couple minutes into it, but this is totally news/documentary style reporting. How the hell does Konami have the right to have it removed? Or is it just that they complained to YouTube and YouTube just didn't give a crap and removed it?

Spoiler

unless this just turns into 5 minutes of MGSV or something...

That's how YouTube works, yes. Though Konami would likely argue that the footage of their games used for illustration purposes was not an illustration or something.

 

[LordofPwn]

so could anyone claim a copyright on konami's videos and get them taken down?

As far as i can tell the video was editorial use so didn't see anything that would infringe on copyright.

 

[stolin]

Konami has a booth at South Hall, so they'll be there.

Yeah but if you saw last years pathetic booth expect very little..

 

[Randam]

what a bunch of..

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

guys remember when konami was good

Makes you wonder, ten years from now which currently beloved developer/publisher/etc. would turn to the dark side.

 

[legacyzero]

I hate linking them, but Kotaku has picked up the story.

It begins.

Dont worry, Kotaku has cleaned up pretty nicely over the last year.

 

[Shouta]

Yeah but if you saw last years pathetic booth expect very little..

That was their booth last year? Goddamn.

 

[Muzicfreq]

 

[Gunslinger]

I won't be surprised if konami cancels mgsv at this point.

 

[KyleCross]

so could anyone claim a copyright on konami's videos and get them taken down?

As far as i can tell the video was editorial use so didn't see anything that would infringe on copyright.

The video uses footage from P.T., MGS2, and MGR: Revengeance without permission. Konami indeed targeted the video for its subject matter, but the fact is it does use footage that belongs to them and that gives them legal grounds to remove it. If SBH didn't have game footage in the video Konami would of had no grounds to stand on to remove it.

 

[Sir Blaming]

Source on that comic strip? lol so many uses for that one!

I don't really know where it came from but here is the original if you want it.

 

[Doosi]

I won't be surprised if konami cancels mgsv at this point.

too much money invested in it at this point

 

[LordofPwn]

The video uses footage from P.T., MGS2, and MGR: Revengeance without permission. Konami indeed targeted the video for its subject matter, but the fact is it does use footage that belongs to them and that gives them legal grounds to remove it. If SBH didn't have game footage in the video Konami would of had no grounds to stand on to remove it.

but it's an editorial use and would fall under fair use? It's essentially a news story and he's not making money off of it.

 

[Betty]

I won't be surprised if konami cancels mgsv at this point.

It's not something I want to even entertain thinking about, but it would not come as a shock.

I doubt they will though, it's a guaranteed payday.

 

[RootCause]

Ah, there it is:

Safe to say it's the other way around.

 

[lupinko]

Some people actually will skip out on games they want out of principal/spite.

I skipped out on P4A over the region locking crap despite badly wanting the game.

Yeah same here, the region locking didn't affect me at all for P4A, but it was utterly baffling. And to this day I still haven't played any of the persona fighting games, principles are very important.

 

[BadRamen]

So, in the future, when MGSV is released, could Konami potentially in the however later future, instead of just dropping support for online like they inevitably will, could they revoke digital licenses on any of the platforms (PSN, XBL, Steam), even for paid customers? Like it could be years and years from now, the heat has died down, and Konami wishes to just purge all availability of their games? We saw early on in the Xbox 360's (and later other digital services) day how bankrupted companies dealt with their digital games (delisted from purchased but redownloadable if you had already bought it) but could Konami just be delusionally spiteful and just erase all the gamez, so to speak?

Sorry if I am sounding hella doomsday-like, but this shit is so bizarre!

 

[Zomba13]

So, in the future, when MGSV is released, could Konami potentially in the however later future, instead of just dropping support for online like they inevitably will, could they revoke digital licenses on any of the platforms (PSN, XBL, Steam), even for paid customers? Like it could be years and years from now, the heat has died down, and Konami wishes to just purge all availability of their games? We saw early on in the Xbox 360's (and later other digital services) day how bankrupted companies dealt with their digital games (delisted from purchased but redownloadable if you had already bought it) but could Konami just be delusionally spiteful and just erase all the gamez, so to speak?

Sorry if I am sounding hella doomsday-like, but this shit is so bizarre!

That's why you buy MGSV physically. Even if Konami wipe the digital sorte version and prevent people from redownloading it and shut off support for the online (which I reckon will get a year tops at this point) then you at least have the physical disk.

I think I'll still get the PC version on steam because even if they delist it there and stop you downloading it hackers and modders will find a way to let it live on.

 

[stan423321]

So, in the future, when MGSV is released, could Konami potentially in the however later future, instead of just dropping support for online like they inevitably will, could they revoke digital licenses on any of the platforms (PSN, XBL, Steam), even for paid customers? Like it could be years and years from now, the heat has died down, and Konami wishes to just purge all availability of their games? We saw early on in the Xbox 360's (and later other digital services) day how bankrupted companies dealt with their digital games (delisted from purchased but redownloadable if you had already bought it) but could Konami just be delusionally spiteful and just erase all the gamez, so to speak?

Sorry if I am sounding hella doomsday-like, but this shit is so bizarre!

Nintendo did the same thing Konami did with P.T. to people who bought a particular, not really major, NES game on Wii VC. Yoshi's Cookie I think? Not sure.

As long as I know nobody knows the full details behind this, but there weren't any lawsuits since the availability of content is subject to removal.