The Death of Konami (as a game company?) Kojima and Staff Leaving by end of year.

[Meian]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...51&postcount=1

Japan’s Konami Corp, a provider of slot machines and systems to the global gaming industry, on Monday announced that the voluntary delisting of its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) became effective prior to the opening of trading on April 24.

Konami, the parent company of U.S.-based Konami Gaming Inc, had said that the listing on the NYSE was “not economically justified” and that the trading volume of its shares on the NYSE accounted “for only a small fraction of the total trading volume of its shares”.

In Monday’s statement, the Japanese conglomerate said it had also filed a form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday “to terminate its reporting obligations” in that country.

The company said it would continue to disclose financial statements and other information in English on its website “to ensure that its overseas shareholders and investors will continue to have appropriate information”.

The company plans to maintain its listings on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.

[Omniyoji]

[Corresapolonia]

That sucks.
I loved the PT for Silent Hills.

[Corrderio]

Welp, with everything going on, Konami is as good as dead to after Phantom Pain comes out.

[Kirin]

Does this sound like Konami is pulling out of the US market entirely to anyone else?

[Katlan]

They have no good IP's left, they may be pulling out to look for a buyer for all we know

[Deathbringer]

[Gwynplaine]

Stay for the ending.

[Lucavi]

Pachinko, baby.

[Qalbert]

so this is a mirror of a video about this fiasco, the original has been DMCA'd/copyright infringment'd by Konami


video contains this email:


the source is a legit employee, but he can't verify the actual info. regardless, this move is going to at least make people think it's legit, whether it is or not, do japanese companies not understand the Streisand effect?

[Kirin]

Video has now apparently been taken down at Konami's request.

The linked video still seems to work, but some have been taken down.

[Corrderio]

If the first page is true, sounds like Konami's president is doing his best to kill off their gaming branch and fucking with the MGS team as much as he can.

Kojima is a trooper though.

[6souls]

Konami Goes Mobile!

Konami's big focus moving forward will be mobile, not AAA games, according to a translated interview with the company's new CEO Hideki Hayakawa.

The lengthy interview originally ran on Nikkei Trendy Net in Japanese.

According to the article, the company plans to pursue mobile games aggressively and make its main platform mobile.

"Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power Pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like 'items' to selling things like 'features,'" according to the translation. "We saw with these games that even people who buy physical games are motivated to buy extra content. The success of Power Pro especially has motivated us to actively push more of our popular series onto mobile than ever before.

"Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies."

Hayakawa added that while they hope that Metal Gear Solid 5 and Winning Eleven continue to do well, "we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too.

"With multiplatform games, there's really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world."

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/14/860...of-gaming-lies
http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article...50424/1064004/

[Krandor]

Pay to Win Contra!

[6souls]

I predict Suikoden to return, but this time... you have to purchase the 108 stars of destiny.

Anyways, it's enlightening to know why all those producers have left the company over the past couple years. Konami is dumping off anyone associated with console gaming.

[Ardrial]

"Mobile is where the future of gaming lies."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p52V1ujsWA...Farnsworth.png

[Stromgarde]

Such are the perils of being a publicly traded company. It's not good enough to be a profitable venture, it has to be the most profitable return on investment... Understandable from a business perspective, but still heartbreaking.

[Salodin]

Wow, so that rumor mill article before about Kojima and what konami was doing to his team was right on the money.

Fuck Konami, I hope all the talent that left and kickstarted their own games are very successful, this publisher is dead to me.

[Omniyoji]

Konami R.I.P

[Kirin]

I really hope someone offers to purchase rights to IP's like suikoden. This is making my heart sad.