"Mobile is where the future of gaming lies", says Hideki Hayakawa, Konamis new CEO

[Bouzoo]

Another Konami topic. They've been more in spotlight recently than EA and Ubisoft combined. 

 

So what's gonna happen to Metal Gear, PES and SIlent Hill?

Konami's big focus moving forward will be mobile, not AAA games, according to a translated interview with the company's new CEO Hideki Hayakawa.

 

The lengthy interview originally ran on Nikkei Trendy Net in Japanese. A NeoGaf user then translated a summary post from another Japanese site, so some of this may have been lost in translation. 

 

 

Here is a translated part of the interview:

"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."

 

So microtransactions.

 

A huge claim. I agree to some point, but is it really the future? Only time will tell.

Sources: 1 and 2

 

Original interview

Edited May 14, 2015 by Bouzoo

[AlwaysFSX]

Disagree! Especially because Konami isn't really relevant.

[Kherm]

oh no, god no

[Rashy]

Its not the future. PC and its VR will be. Get real konami, bring Kojima back you fuckers

[Redsun20]

Another Konami topic. They've been more in spotlight recently than EA and Ubisoft combined. 

 

 

 

Here is a translated part of the interview:

 

A huge claim. I agree to some point, but is it really the future? Only time will tell.

Sources: 1 and 2

 

Original interview

OH HEEL NO!!!!!!

[christianled59]

Not for me at least. When I'm not home, I'm usually busy or being social. If the future of gaming is at a restaurant with your face buried in your phone when you're supposed to be on a date, then I'm out.

[Bouzoo]

Disagree! Especially because Konami isn't really relevant.

 

I mean mobile gaming is gonna increase as a whole. I agree on that. But I don't think it's gonna affect PC/consoles 

[AlwaysFSX]

I mean mobile gaming is gonna increase as a whole. I agree on that. But I don't think it's gonna affect PC/consoles 

Mobile gaming will never have the depth that console or PC gaming has. So it's a non-issue.

[gill2k]

I hope you fail and this "pay-as-you-go" bubble will burst sooner than later.  It's already bleeding into big titles (more DLC anyone???)

[BestBOTEU]

top kek

[typographie]

Get real konami, bring Kojima back you fuckers

 

Better yet, let Kojima go do his important work elsewhere without Konami getting their greasy hands all over it. I bet there's a lot of better publishers who'd love to get him on their payroll.

 

That would surely mean leaving behind the MGS and Silent Hill licenses, but I'd rather see him come up with something new than have to keep churning out mediocre versions of past glories forever, anyway.

[AnnoyedShelf]

I wouldn't listen to anything Konami says right now.  They recently fired one of the world's best game designers/directors.

[Rashy]

Better yet, let Kojima go do his important work elsewhere without Konami getting their greasy hands all over it. I bet there's a lot of better publishers who'd love to get him on their payroll.

 

That would surely mean leaving behind the MGS and Silent Hill licenses, but I'd rather see him come up with something new than have to keep churning out mediocre versions of past glories forever, anyway.

Kojima own gaming company?! YES PLSS MAKE Loud Mountains REAL! GAME DEV TYCOON TITLES ON THE RESCUE

[Ganz]

If by mobile you mean VR like The Void, is doing.  So mobile as in you are physically moving while gaming....

[SurvivorNVL]

I think the last time I had interest in mobile gaming was the Nintendo DS, and I've not touched that since the year it came out.  Eeeeh.. Konami... 

[Rashy]

Better yet, let Kojima go do his important work elsewhere without Konami getting their greasy hands all over it. I bet there's a lot of better publishers who'd love to get him on their payroll.

 

That would surely mean leaving behind the MGS and Silent Hill licenses, but I'd rather see him come up with something new than have to keep churning out mediocre versions of past glories forever, anyway.

What if Kojima decided to retire and live in seaside mansions? Id do that if i get fired with tons of money

[Bouzoo]

I think the last time I had interest in mobile gaming was the Nintendo DS, and I've not touched that since the year it came out.  Eeeeh.. Konami... 

 

I played Broken Sword on G2 and it was good... since it was a PC game. And few Square Enix RPGs, like the old FF. Would play KOTOR again but I hear it's terrible. There are a few good games for phones.

[Psykomantis00]

I would love mobile gaming but there needs to be a real controller standard for ios and android. That's what's missing. The ipad air 2 can run some pretty amazing shit but touch controls make me want to kill myself. The closest thing I got to an ideal mobile gaming system was the nvidia shield 1st gen with the controller/screen all in one. The new one is okay but I'd rather have the all in one. The only reason I don't have one is because there are no games. The only thing I would use it for is ROMs for genesis, n64 and psx.

[BuckGup]

Phones have enough power to run some amazing looking things but your battery dies so fast you can't even finish the tutorial.

[Briggsy]

It stands to reason that the more successful a company is in a particular area of the market, the more accurate their market forecasting is going to be in that particular area. Given that Konami are leaving a familiar market due to losses, and going into a market they are not familiar with, I doubt their opinion on the direction of the gaming market has anything to do with there influence on gaming. They are just following the easy money trail to keep their business alive, but mobile is a market where a half-baked developer can create a simple game and make millions, while a company like EA can release AAA mobile games that no one wants to play. I smell wishful thinking coming from Konami. 

[CommandMan7]

Summary:
 
"We expect people to give up their 60" tv's and 4k monitors to awkwardly hold a 4" long rectangle sideways while paying us for stuff they should have already gotten. Isn't it obvious that controllers and keyboards are far worse than covering a quarter of the screen with your fingers, with inaccurate tracking of your limited movements? We believe mobile gaming's real advantage is the fact that you have to constantly worry about battery life, not mentioning the distorted audio and resolution. We made this decision because we believe that mobile gaming is the future."

 

 

 

Real reason: PC gamers, and to a degree even console gamers, won't tolerate microtransactions and overpriced DLC, so therefore to get the easy money they must move to mobile. It's a sad business model, ditching your company's history to move to a platform you can more easily exploit. Rockstar proved that the old model still works (Release on all platforms, Free DLC, proper optimization, delay rather than release junk), why can't other developers see that! In my book, this is just as bad as the people who believe in "cinematic 30 frames per second". When they say the future of gaming is mobile, they mean the future of easy money in gaming is mobile.

[JoaoPRSousa]

Drops Silent Hills to move over to mobile games...

Seems legit.

[typographie]

What if Kojima decided to retire and live in seaside mansions? Id do that if i get fired with tons of money

He could, I guess, but I feel like he could have resigned and done that years ago if he'd wanted to. I doubt he's out of ideas, and he's probably the kind of guy who's going to want to keep doing what he's passionate about.

[Bouzoo]

Real reason: PC gamers, and to a degree even console gamers, won't tolerate microtransactions and overpriced DLC, so therefore to get the easy money they must move to mobile.

Tell that to the "new age" kids that spend fortunes on those.

[Rashy]

He could, I guess, but I feel like he could have resigned and done that years ago if he'd wanted to. I doubt he's out of ideas, and he's probably the kind of guy who's going to want to keep doing what he's passionate about.

True. Cant he just draw one out of the community? And add divine salt and pepper to spice up the story?