Konami treating staff like prisoners

Links234

http://kotaku.com/report-konami-is-treating-its-staff-like-prisoners-1721700073

According to a report on Nikkei, the corporate culture at Konami—home of Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Pro Evolution Soccer—hasn’t only soured over the past few years, but has become almost terrifyingly Orwellian.

This is pretty damning, even by Japanese corporate standards, Konami seems to be really racing to the bottom.

Mr E

I read that this morning. Sounds like an awful place to work.

I wonder if they will issue a statement to refute the allegations? Their silence would be an admission.

RedXIV

Couldn't believe it when I was reading this earlier today. I have to confess that I thought the kojima-konami thing would be because of kojima being a diva but it looks to be the complete opposite.

5rtytry56

Sad to see.:( Konami was integrally involved of the development of Frontier: Elite 2 by David Braben.

Links234

Mr E wrote: »

I wonder if they will issue a statement to refute the allegations? Their silence would be an admission.

Their statements are usually vague and bullsh*tty, I wouldn't expect much.

RedXIV wrote: »

I have to confess that I thought the kojima-konami thing would be because of kojima being a diva but it looks to be the complete opposite.

I think Kojima is a bit of a diva too, this is a good read, but it's definitely more than just him. The company is just not interested in releasing games like that any more, it's why they canned Silent Hills in spite of how much fan demand there was. Kojima, Del Toro and Reedus, it was a dream project. But Konami make way more money from Pachinko machines and now mobile games, than they did from their big franchises.

What Kojima does next will be the thing to watch...
But it's a serious shame because Konami have had a legacy of great games, their PC ports were excellent, like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, MGR: Revengeance and MGSV: Ground Zeroes are all fantastic games. In fact, MGSV: The Phantom Pain is one that I'm not at all worried about buying on release because of their track record and just how amazingly well GZ runs. Still... It's kinda sobering to think that The Phantom Pain might be one of the last big games we see from them.

What they'll do with their existing franchises is probably just make stuff like an MGS themed Pachinko

Xterminator

that piece reads a little propaganda-ish.

low on specific allegations and high on broad allegations.

i mean if someone is regularly late back from lunch the would deserve censure.

Retr0gamer

Par for the course for Japanese companies unfortunately. When the Virtual Boy failed Gunpei Yokoi was made man the tables at trade shows.

K.O.Kiki

"like prisoners"

Kotaku with that clickbait hyperbole :pac:

Retr0gamer

Jeremy Parish has a far less hyperbolic piece about the situation:

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/a-requiem-for-konami

Links234

Fret not folks, fans of Silent Hill can rejoice now, because there's Silent Hill Pachinko!

...yeah...

*sigh*