A lot has been said over the last year or so about Konami, their mishandling of their long running classic franchises, and their purported exit from the AAA console games market, and the ensuing fallout with their fans. However, over the last few days, Konami USA have been trying to mend bridges with their community.
Yesterday, Ben, who apparently handles social media for Konami in the US, continued with that effort in a free for all, no holds barred AMA session that they held on Reddit, where he took on some of the questions that the fan community had for him. Among these questions was the ever pertinent one of their exit from the console market. According to Ben, the issue has been overblown and misrepresented- Konami CEO Hideki Hayakawa apparently made multiple statements stressing that Konami plans to stay on in the AAA games market, that were ignored in order to push a narrative that would generate clicks- apparently, while Konami will continue to expand to other businesses, such as health, pachinko machines, and mobile games, they will also continue to support console games.
In another post, Ben was asked about Konami’s reaction to the success of the P.T. demo to which Ben stated that they were “blown away by how quickly it was solved.” He was also asked whether Metal Gear or Silent Hill fans should look forward to Gamescom this year. Ben did not say a yes or no, simply stating ‘no hints!’ He did, however, state very clearly and explicitly that he doesn’t know anything about new single player content coming for Metal gear Solid V– which raises the question of just what the hell Metal Gear Solid 5 Definitive Ex is, then.
Could it be true, then? Could Konami really have been misunderstood all along? I guess the first stop for us to find out- Gamescom. Maybe if there is a big announcement made there, fans will know that Konami are serious, and that they really are telling the truth, and were misinterpreted all along.
