Fiz_The_Toaster said:
I kinda had a feeling that they would cancel the game once Del Toro and Kojima weren't involved.
You got that completely backwards. Del Toro and Kojima aren't involved because Konami are canceling Silent Hills. Neither of them, nor Norman Reedus, left the project.
The truth of the matter appears to be that Kojima had a falling out with Kagemasa Kozu. We have no idea if Kagemasa is pushing Kojima out, or if Kojima is just setting out on his own, because neither one is currently talking, but rumors reported from inside Konami indicate the former.
Mr.Mattress said:
Not only does Konami officially cancel Silent Hills, they also Delist themselves from the New York Stock Exchange [http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/27/8503893/konami-delists-itself-from-new-york-stock-exchange].
I think Konami might be leaving Video Gaming...
They delisted themselves from the NYSE because it costs them 5 million dollars a year and less than 3% of their shares are ever traded in the US. You can actually still buy Konami shares in the US, they just aren't listed on the NYSE anymore. Konami is not going anywhere anytime soon unless they have a big scandal in the wings - this is even less likely if the current push to legalize gambling in Japan succeeds (on the second try through). They are in prime position to cash in on selling gambling machines if this does.
In fact, this move may actually signal their confidence in this bill passing, as they may want to shift gears to accommodate what is likely to be a huge short term market. Extra evidence that lends credence to this theory is that while they've closed down Kojima's LA studio, they've also consolidated every single other project related team at Konami into discipline specific divisions (for example, all audio engineers together in an audio engineering department). You'd probably do this if you wanted to retool your organization to work on many small projects at one time, like for instance, developing a dozen or two themed electronic gambling machines based on Konami properties. Metal Gear Poker anyone? Ahem.
All that being said, getting rid of their Digital Entertainment division doesn't make any sense as it accounts for almost half of their entire earnings, so I suspect they will continue to make video games for quite a few years - at least if they're capable of it after this reorganization shuffle.
Bat Vader said:
Why Konami would distance themselves from one of their biggestvcash cows I will never know. It would be awesome if Kojima opened his own studio and continued work on Silent Hills. Just put it under a different name.
This is kind of a "meh". Take Metal Gear for instance - The games on the primary franchise do pretty well, but they also have a high production cost and each subsequent one has earned less money (although still very profitable). However, their spin-off properties are very cheap to produce and do exceedingly well. In a way, Konami may be betting that the Metal Gear franchise is big enough to survive without Kojima and the sales of the games he is not involved in are proof in their eyes.
Alternatively, we still don't know if this is actually Kojima leaving them to do his own thing. I suspect we'll find out when he's finally gone from Konami.
