It's amazing to see how such a great company had such a huge downfall so quickly. I mean, they had BOTH Silent Hill 2 and MGS2 released in the same year, that's insane.

The level of quality they had was great and it's really heartbreaking to see them go down this way. I don't know if they'll be able to win us back or not, but just thinking about the level of quality of the games they helped produce over the years makes me feel really sad.

How about any of you? Are you still hopeful they'll be able to win us back? Or have you given up all hope?

Yep, had to do it.

Couldn't get into Silent Hill 2. It bored me. The only Konami franchise I've ever had much love for is Metal Gear, and that was all Kojima Productions, who kind of ran it into the ground before leaving. Konami can go bankrupt for all I care. Oh, I did like some of the 2D Castlevania games, but I'm not desperate for more.

Nah, they're dead to most folks.

Even if they do reach a fraction of their previous glory, they'll have "achieved" that with some of the worst working conditions for developers. I wouldn't want to promote that by buying their games.

Unless they can

1. make at least some games that are as good as they were back in the day, and

2. get rid of all of the crappy upper management that made their devs' lives awful,

I don't see myself caring about what they make or wanting to support it. And at this point, neither of these conditions look like they'll be met.

I miss Mystical Ninja.

Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece

I like the atmosphere of SH2, but my main gripe and mechanic (besides the controls) that deters me from really getting into the game is, if you're going to create SO MANY non-progression related "locked doors" why fucking have them in the game?

Edit: Oh, and by the way: Fuck Konami! (Thank you Jim Sterling!)

It's only last year they released the most expensive game in their history. I'd love to know the politics that screwed them and whether that's subsided a bit. Other than that, 2001 was it. Everything from then on was them spinning wheels.

Silent Hill 2 is incredibly tame in this regards compared to Silent Hill 3. Silent Hill 3 just straight up has fuck you rooms with monsters in them and no resources inside, and entire corridors worth of doors with broken locks. Both are still fantastic though.

I know they don't get discussed a lot, but the DS Castlevania games were actually pretty great.

As for your question OP, I don't think Konami wants to win us back, they have been pretty obvious with how they want out of most of the video game business. Maybe in a few years they'll pull an SNK if the gambling laws don't go their way, but that's just conjecture. Survive is mainly an attempt at squeezing out a bit more cash out of MGSV by doing a spin off with a lot of reused assets. I think the way zombies climbed the fence and how it fell was pretty neat, along with just the visual of the horde shambling out of the fog, but that's about it.

It is real strange to me that they went with the zombie-survival game route and not just made co-op MGSV. That seems to me like a way better method of not completely alienating the fanbase and actually giving them something that they probably want out of MGSV.

Now THAT'S a series I'd love to go back to. The N64 title didn't do too well, but I remember playing the crap out of the SNES one.

Just a year ago they put out what was, to paraphrase one Brad Shoemaker, "almost the greatest game ever made." Something like that, I don't remember.

But yeah. More than anything else, it's just sad to see so many storied franchises under their control. Who's happy about "erotic violence" Castlevania pachinko, or MGSV but with zombies as the only enemies? Look at those CG renders for the MGS3 pachinko and just imagine what could've been if that game got a proper, actual remake. The story of MGS3, and the gameplay of MGSV? Holy moly!

Sadly, however, it's not to be.

@korwin: Haha perfect!

Memeber Chewbacca again?

How can you not like the N64 one? It was basically Zelda with mech battles. The other one (sidescroller) wasnt that great but it was still quite fun.

Anyway I feel like Konami havent been great since Castlevania Harmony of Despair, which was arguably worse than Lords of Shadow. I love all the MGS games though. (RIP)

MGS3 is one of the last games that needs a remake. It plays fine. I wouldn't want it to have the gameplay of MGSV. It's an important step in the series and doesn't need to be changed in a significant way. Konami would be wasting their time. I'd rather play something new.

Castlevania is the only franchise of theirs I care about at all.

Remember their (and "Ultra Games") awesome box art?

Edit: Here's some of their amazing SNES art.

Every once in a while I look at my Suikoden collection and shed a single, solitary tear.

@korwin: This was literally the first thing I thought of when watching the video.

I remember them being the publisher for Elite II: Frontier (along with GameTek).

I don't think Konami will ever be good again. They've driven off most of the devs who made their games good in the first place, and I doubt any of them want to return to work there. I have high hopes they'll make some great games on their own now that they're no longer in that hellhole. Igarashi's Bloodstained is looking suitably Castlevania-esque, and Kojima is up to his usual craziness.

Also, I just realized one of the main artists on SotNalso has a last name of Kojima. Small name pool.

Anyone thinking Konami will ever be good again is Sonic-the-Hedgehog-fan levels of delusional.

They could foster or poach new guys from the indie scene, mind. "It's either this or work on mobile ... which we also do." You've only really got Capcom and Konami as your options if you want a bigger budget. If we're talking action / adventure stuff.

I'm not really a Konami fan. I think MGS1 and 2 were awesome but I didn't like the later ones as much. I tried to get into Silent Hill and Zone of Enders but could not.

I wish Konami gave more of a sh*t about video games these days, i would love another good metal gear and not a stupid zombie game with zombiecorns in it.

Suikoden was an awesome thing once. Base building, duels, and large scale battles. All things that JRPGs rarely or never do anymore.

Vandal Hearts 2 boys, Suikoden is neat but the last one is by far the best so whatever; not like Valkyrie Profile where's there's still a lot of shit Square could do with it and refuse to.

I actually found the insane amount of lock doors hilarious. It's like they took the trope of horror films and locked doors, and said to themselves "Let's take this dumb thing ALL THE WAY."

They never really bothered me.

I'm currently playing through this game and it's dang fun.

Yea.. I've played their leaked Salamander game on Android. It was very bad. No hope for a company that treats IP of such class with no respect at all.

@skinky: Precisely. The lack of respect they show to their games and its creators is just baffling. They can die for all I care. But I do hope they sell of their ips like contra, castlevania, silent hill and so on to other devs or publishers. I want their games to live on, with or without them.

BARKERVILLE, BARKERVILLE AOOOOOOOO-OOOOUUUUH

Yeah, this one stings me

Pretty much my whole life my favorite game Publishers have always been there. Nintendo, Squaresoft, Capcom and Konami. To lose one really feels like a whole in my hobby.

I'd kill to have VK 2 and Suikoden V on PSN. I've played everything else in those series. Don't think that's super likely unfortunately.

I'm looking at their list of releases. They still produce 10-ish arcade cabinets a year. Last year they hit mobile pretty hard but haven't followed that up this year. I mean, it feels like Konami are trying to keep a foot in just in case. Funny how the arcade business has always been there, in spite of Japanese tendencies to game during a commute or stay at home.

Yeah, their arcade Bemani division is still going as strong as ever, strangely enough.

If anything, their patchislot division is on it's arse. Might explain the firestorm that hit last year. "If this thing passes, we'll be the guys to bank on ..."

A lucrative sector that is unfortunately packed with the likes of Sammy, Capcom and Namco. No wonder SNK backed out.

I think a lot of their staying power has to do with the fact that there's so damn many of them, you don't have to go far to find an arcade in Japan.