On January 15th, Konami announced a series of executive appointments and official personnel changes as part of an internal restructuring exercise. In the same press release, the house of Metal Gear and Silent Hill noted that it is “dissolving” three of its production divisions “to respond to the rapid market that surrounds us.” For some reason, a number of outlets picked up this development over a week later, and took it as some sort of confirmation that Konami was bowing out of video game development. Not quite.
In a statement to Gematsu, Konami clarified that “the announcement made refers to an internal restructure, with Production Divisions being consolidated. We have not ‘shut down’ our video gaming division.”
There were some reports today citing an over a week-old restructuring announcement from Konami that mentioned dissolving its Production Divisions, which some misinterpreted as it shuttering console game production—which is false. Konami provided Gematsu the following statement: pic.twitter.com/xYdMQQpa8t
— Gematsu (@gematsucom) January 25, 2021
Considering Konami has been largely absent from the video game scene in recent years, it’s understandable where these speculations came from. However, the company has been developing the Pro Evolution Soccer series among publishing projects like last year’s Skelattack. In fact, Konami announced in June 2020 that it’s eyeing more Western titles to diversify its portfolio and reach a wider audience.
“The drive is towards publishing more titles from Western studios,” the company said at the time. “So the focus for the European team is domestic audiences. Obviously everyone knows Konami; we have studios and teams in Japan, we have many well-known, well loved IPs. They’re all being managed and looked after by our studios in Japan, and what we’re looking for is complementary titles, to build the portfolio with things that perhaps [are] new to Konami – Western titles for Western audiences.”
Just don’t expect another Metal Gear or Silent Hill anytime soon.
