Konami has announced a corporate restructure that will consolidate many of the company’s internal departments on February 1st. According to an official translation of the announcement, this means that the company’s three “production divisions” will be dissolved, though its “production departments” remain unchanged.
According to financial professionals, this is a move that will have an unclear impact on the company’s gaming operations. Analyst Daniel Ahmad suggests that this restructure is similar to the one that Konami undertook in 2015, and that the company is not “shutting down” their gaming operations, as fans have often accused it of doing in recent years. Others noted that companies like Sega and Square Enix have gone through similar restructures in the past.
So no, Konami is NOT shutting down their gaming division. They probably have NOT sold their IPs to a company you like more than them either
I get the frustration with how Konami handles their gaming business these days, but that company is bigger than people think— Nibel (@Nibellion) January 25, 2021
Correct. It’s just a restructure similar to the one they did in 2015.
Essentially they want to have teams focused on growth areas of the industry.— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 25, 2021
While it’s true that Konami doesn’t release that many games these days, it still owns some of the most beloved gaming franchises in the world, including Metal Gear and Castlevania. For context, the last major Castlevania game was Lords of Shadow 2, which came out in 2014. Metal Gear has fared a bit better, with 2018’s Metal Gear Survive releasing without longtime director Hideo Kojima at the helm. Kojima left the company years ago due to a dispute over the production of Metal Gear Solid V.
As with previous Konami announcements, this caused Twitter to buzz with hope for a new Silent Hill game, though there’s no indication that one is in development. Konami denied rumors of a reboot last year. The company said they want to produce more “Western-developed” games last summer.
