Downfall of Konami

A fallout between Kojima Productions and its owning publisher, Konami, has led to senior staff at the studio being restricted access to corporate internet, emails, and phone, GameSpot understands.
Along with the restricted communications, key developers at the studio, such as Hideo Kojima, will now have limited opportunities to lend their appearance to promotions of the studio’s upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
Power struggles between Kojima Productions and Konami have convinced the publisher to make drastic changes, including amending the employee status of its Metal Gear team. Some senior staff at the studio, including Kojima, now essentially work as contractors, not permanent employees.
The extraordinary measures were revealed by a source within Konami, speaking to GameSpot on the condition of anonymity. The person explained that, once the Phantom Pain project is finished, in all likelihood the management at the studio will disband.
"After we finish MGSV, Mr. Kojima and upper management will leave Konami. They said their contract ends in December," the source claimed.
The person added: "At a team meeting, Mr Kojima explained that team have to be one and make a good game for fans."
In other developments, Konami has begun removing the Kojima Productions logo from all official Metal Gear art, and it has removed Kojima from its executive team. Meanwhile, Kojima Productions’ branding has also been removed from Twitter, the official Metal Gear website, and even the LA office listing.
Representatives for Konami would not discuss specifics of the matter when contacted by GameSpot. The corporation has offered a statement, however.
It reads: "Konami Digital Entertainment, including Mr. Kojima, will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements."
The corporation's public relations team, based in Tokyo, is unavailable at the time of going to press, due to it being past midnight local time.
Metal Gear Solid 5, Kojima’s latest iteration in the famed series, ships in September on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.
An expanded statement from Konami follows: "As we have already announced, we are shifting our production structure to a headquarters-controlled system, in order to establish a steadfast operating base capable of responding to the rapid market changes that surround our digital entertainment business. Konami Digital Entertainment (including Mr. Kojima), will continue to develop and support Metal Gear products. Please look forward to future announcements."

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If Konami does force a key number of there workers out they will likely be on a path to mobile games as while. I know they have been in hard times lately but, they should find other ways to get back on track then getting rid of a number of key workers.

So in other words, Konami is shutting down soon? I mean, what else will they do without Kojima anyway? He's pretty much the core of the company.

Yea, I agree with Zero: without Kojima; Konami's got nothin'. ... Which is kinda sad though. =/

Interesting article here about Konami falling out of the console buisness.

If they do completely fall out, I wonder what happens to Konami franchises like Metal Gear and Castlevania.
And, Konami bought Hudson Soft and merged them into Konami, so, you don't think Nintendo could buy Bomberman (or all of Hudson's properties) and pass them on to Nd Cube?
I mean the old Hudson employees working on their own games again would be a bit exciting.

If Konami gets out of gaming.. What will happen to the YuGiOh franchise? There are a ton of YGO handheld titles & other titles that have released. I'm a huge fan of the YGO hand held titles.. Not to mention their Castlevania series, or anything else worthy of note. I mean Konami maybe struggling but they still own the rights to my favorite JRPG/Strategy series Suikoden. And if Konami dies then so too does my deep down wish for a Suikoden 6 release..... Konami can't die.. At least with out Nintendo buying them out first. xp I insist they get Suikoden, Castlevania, YGO, & MGS since I think that Nintendo could handle all of those titles with a fair amount of ease. As for Hudson soft; I never played any Hudson Soft games so maybe it's just best to just let it go is how I feel. *shrugs*

Yeah, obviously being that we're all pretty big Nintendo fans here, we'd all want Nintendo to buy out Konami or some of the franchises if they end up going bankrupt. I mean, exclusive Metal Gear games on Nintendo consoles?! That would be awesome. And of course Suikoden like Queen mentioned. Even Castlevania. That would be an insanely great purchase, and a smart investment. Although any company could obviously take it up.

Here's a new report.
It points out how Konami has turned into the "Kozuki Empire", being completely run by that family, and staff are being mistreated.
It also says the creators of Suikoden, Momotaro Dentetsu and other games have also left, just like Hideo Kojima will.

But, this report says Nintendo is licensing Momotaro Dentetsu for a new game, Momotaro Dentetsu is a former Hudson Soft IP.

So it appears Nintendo taking Hudson Soft's games out of their current demise, is a possibility.

And as expected, Konami has just kind of fallen apart. I'm really not surprised so many key members have left, although I do wonder what the details are regarding them being "mistreated."

Well, here's one case.

Another incident reported by Nikkei involves the social network Facebook. One Konami employee posted on his account that he was leaving the firm, and the Konami staff who "Liked" the post were targeted and reassigned within the firm. This apparently impacted individuals quite high up in the Konami management.

Apparently some high end employees were reassigned to clean up and security guard roles.

I'm not surprised really; usually some higher up "important" families are like that in Japan anyway.

I've known about the Suikoden creators leaving form the company for some time now. So knowing they've "officially left" is nothing new. XD

While it's no suprise they left after all the things that are going on inside of Konami right now. I just hope the studio figures out everything soon.

This article tells us even more about Konami's huge issues, and may tell us why the creators of Momotaro Dentetsu, Castlevania, Love Plus and Suikoden have left.

So basically working at Konami is like being held in a prison. I mean, no wonder all these people left, that's incredibly uninviting and honestly a terrible way to treat employees.