A lot of people are upset by Konami's recent decision to abandon big game development and focus on mobile and pachinko. i am too, but beyond being upset, I'm also kind of confused.
While the big video game market is difficult, it can also be extremely profitable for the big players, and it's an expanding market that will continue to grow for the forseeable future. Konami also has a lot of intellectual property that resonates with long-term gamers and allows them to generate huge hype for big projects, like MGS V and Silent Hills.
The Pachinko market, on the other hand, is by all accounts shrinking. Not only is Japan a shrinking society, with negative population growth, but pachinko is falling out of favor there, I believe, as slots are in the United States. All the U.S. slot manufacturers are trying to get into other businesses, like skill games, because the market for slots is getting smaller, and my understanding is that Pachinko is similarly contracting. Meanwhile all of Konami's vast IP are pretty meaningless in the world of pachinko as far as I know. The game is primarily played by old people, and what do they care about a Castlevania? I imagine this is also like the U.S., where slot machines are often licensed with big names that the old people liked when they were young, like Beverley Hillbillies or Friends (which isn't that old but was watched by a lot of geezers.) Who does Silent Hill's new Erotic Violence machine appeal to? Not Silent Hill fans that's for sure, and I can't imagine pachislot fans are super excited either because they likely do not know the property.
Meanwhile mobile is a huge market, especially in Japan, but also a total crapshoot. Unlike in the big console market where the big publishers can guarantee big hits with enough money and marketing, mobile is full of one hit wonders and weird games that viral their way to the top. No company seems capable of consistent hits and the big Japanese console developers seem to have struggled compared to other companies that were born in mobile (and generally focus on just one game or type of game.) This doesn't seem like a market that is conducive to a big lumbering old company like Konami, especially since it has a very old-school fuddy duddy way of thinking internally. And mobile gamers might like Kondami's big IP, but will they want to play Metal Gear Solid Cell Phone?
It seems to me that Konami is focusing on two markets it is not super well positioned to dominate (though I know it already has a lot of success in Pachinko) and abandoning a big lucrative growing market to do so. At the very least they are probably leaving money on the table by not licensing out their old games/IPs AND failing to keep those IPs fresh. People are obsessed with Metal Gear now, but how much will they care after 10 years of no new console games and a bunch of degrading mobile stuff?
I don't get it. I realize that I don't really know the Japanese market let alone the internals at Konami or what they're exact strategy is, but I do not get it.
Log in to comment