Konami finally announces new Silent Hill!

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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Fox12 said:
Edit: The worst part is they've won. They aren't going bankrupt. They aren't digging a hole. Their making a massive profit with marginal investments. And they're going to horde their IP's until the end of days. You won't get any new games. But it's much worse. You probably won't get your hands on their old games either. Which means that new generations won't have access to Silent Hill 2, or any of their old masterpieces in the future. And there's nothing you can do about it.
I may not completely understand copyright law but I think they have to make a game of a property or they risk losing the license to it unless pachinko machines count. I'm not completely sure about that but I know that apply to some things like watchmen(that's the reason the prequels happened or the series never been out of print) or a lot of comic book movies(like the fantastic four) but those might be different cases
 

FPLOON

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Oh shit! Now, my grandma can find out what this whole "Silent Hill" thing is all about!

Other than that, will this have a sequel in its future the same way the first Silent Hill did? And will the sequel be better?
 

Fox12

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tf2godz said:
Fox12 said:
Edit: The worst part is they've won. They aren't going bankrupt. They aren't digging a hole. Their making a massive profit with marginal investments. And they're going to horde their IP's until the end of days. You won't get any new games. But it's much worse. You probably won't get your hands on their old games either. Which means that new generations won't have access to Silent Hill 2, or any of their old masterpieces in the future. And there's nothing you can do about it.
I may not completely understand copyright law but I think they have to make a game of a property or they risk losing the license to it unless pachinko machines count. I'm not completely sure about that but I know that apply to some things like watchmen(that's the reason the prequels happened or the series never been out of print) or a lot of comic book movies(like the fantastic four) but those might be different cases
I hope your right, but I'm not so sure.

With Marvel, they licensed out their movie rights to other studios. In that case the rights revert to the original copyright owner after so many years. The problem is that Konami IS the original copyright owner of these franchises.

Watchmen is similar. It was in the contract that Alan Moore would get the rights after the book went out of print. Back then comics never stayed in print. His book, specifically, changed that. He would only get the rights because of the contract that he signed. They actually offered him the rights at one point, and he refused.

I would love for Silent Hill 2 to remain available for future generations, and for the law to protect that. But the law tends to reflect corporate interests. It becomes a question of who really owns art. Does it belong to the creator? To the culture? To a corporation? To all of the above? I'm not sure, but plenty of companies seem happy to sit on IP's so that others can't do anything with them.
 

Nazulu

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I would pay to see this company die slow and painful.
 

Drathnoxis

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Is this really such a shocking event? I mean, sure it's selling out, but have any of you been to a casino lately? You can play slots themed in Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, Walking Dead, Star Wars, and that's only the ones I've seen personally from the 2 times I went gambling last year.
 

MysticSlayer

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Let's see:
-Making an elaborate trailer based on a game everyone was waiting for only to then make it about their actual money-making desire? Check.
-Making a slots game based off an IP people are telling them to sell because they'll never use it? Check.

Yeah, Konami is just trying to piss people off at this point. But then again, we all knew that the people leading them are insane or just pure evil. I'm not sure which one I prefer, but I have to admit, it is sort of funny to watch them sink lower and lower...That is, it would be funny, if they weren't a bunch of controlling megalomaniacs that treated their employees worse than they treat their own shit.
 

Sleepy Sol

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Nazulu said:
I would pay to see this company die slow and painful.
Methinks a Kickstarter campaign is in order.

...Though I'm more of a mind to desire a swift death so another company can actually do something worthwhile with all those IPs soon.
 

Nazulu

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Drathnoxis said:
Is this really such a shocking event? I mean, sure it's selling out, but have any of you been to a casino lately? You can play slots themed in Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, Walking Dead, Star Wars, and that's only the ones I've seen personally from the 2 times I went gambling last year.
Well we should never condone such a behavior. Plus we can still buy Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, etc. in stores, including those IP's are still used to make stuff some fans want.

It feels like Konami is just trying salt the entire earth here.
 

jhoroz

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Notice, unlike the Castlevania one, that they're aiming specifically to butcher Silent Hill 2 as to say fuck you to Guy Chihi and all the other people they mistreated professionally when the whole HD collection controversy sprung up? Like, I was expecting something as dumb as a Silent Hill pachinko machine, but this is just spiteful and maliscious.
 

stroopwafel

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Fox12 said:
Edit: The worst part is they've won. They aren't going bankrupt. They aren't digging a hole. Their making a massive profit with marginal investments. And they're going to horde their IP's until the end of days. You won't get any new games. But it's much worse. You probably won't get your hands on their old games either. Which means that new generations won't have access to Silent Hill 2, or any of their old masterpieces in the future. And there's nothing you can do about it.

Unfortunately, that is probably true. Their IP's are copyrighted so Konami is free to do with them as they please. Also they are making a shit ton of money off these pachinko machines which will most likely increase exponentially once the Japanese gambling ban is lifted. They already have an enormous foothold in that market.

Konami can churn out shovelware for mobile phones at zero cost while gambling addicts will continue filling those pachinko slot machines. In many ways Konami is a victim of its own success. Around the midway 2000's you also see companies like Capcom and Squaresoft/Enix adopting a corporate culture that stifled creativity in favor of profit 'maximization'.

Videogames gave these companies financial success, this then attracted corporate managers that diversified these companies assets into different territories which in turn ran any creative effort into the ground. Like, with KojiPro being basically Konami's only in-house developer left before that too got shitcanned.

Konami is the most grotesque expample of a former videogame company now solely concerned about shareholder value, but in general it can be said that success wil ultimately rot these companies to the core(Capcom, Activision, EA). It's just that these companies never diversified their assets the way Konami did. So they remain more or less 'dependent' on console game development(with all the shitty results).
 

EternallyBored

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Fox12 said:
I hope your right, but I'm not so sure.

With Marvel, they licensed out their movie rights to other studios. In that case the rights revert to the original copyright owner after so many years. The problem is that Konami IS the original copyright owner of these franchises.

Watchmen is similar. It was in the contract that Alan Moore would get the rights after the book went out of print. Back then comics never stayed in print. His book, specifically, changed that. He would only get the rights because of the contract that he signed. They actually offered him the rights at one point, and he refused.

I would love for Silent Hill 2 to remain available for future generations, and for the law to protect that. But the law tends to reflect corporate interests. It becomes a question of who really owns art. Does it belong to the creator? To the culture? To a corporation? To all of the above? I'm not sure, but plenty of companies seem happy to sit on IP's so that others can't do anything with them.
tf2godz said:
In this case, Japanese copyright law doesn't seem to be as long-lasting as American law where a corporation can hold copyright for a century plus after the creator's death, although that keeps getting extended as Disney drops millions on politicians so that Mickey Mouse never enters the public domain.

Even then, Konami can't just lose the rights to Silent Hill or MGS, even if they never make another SH or MGS game again. In America you can lose the trademark to something, so you could use the Silent Hill name on a totally different videogame, but you never really lose the copyright.

In Japan it looks like we would still be waiting a few decades at least before the properties even stood a chance at entering the public domain. So don't get your hopes up, Konami thoroughly has the rights to their games locked down unless they decide to either sell the rights or lease them out to another company to make sequels.

While tragic to an extent, I'd rather Silent Hill, MGS, and Castlevania die and never see the light of day again then spend the next few decades being farmed out for freemium mobile games and gambling machines.



MysticSlayer said:
Let's see:
-Making an elaborate trailer based on a game everyone was waiting for only to then make it about their actual money-making desire? Check.
-Making a slots game based off an IP people are telling them to sell because they'll never use it? Check.
To be fair, these pachinko announcements seem to be fairly standard for new machines, check the Youtube links on the same page as that video to see the same elaborate trailers for a bunch of new machines, its not just a Konami thing either.

Dunno why, but apparently slot machines and pachinko machines need big Youtube announcements with cheesy graphics and a lot of jumpcuts about numbers, multipliers, and jackpots now. Seems stupid, but Konami seems to just be following along with the other slot/pachinko machine makers in Japan.
 

Casual Shinji

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vledleR said:
It's like an ex, sinking to pathetic lows trying to get back at you. All you can do is shake your head sometimes.
At this point it really does seem like they're doing it just to hurt us, taking our kids and purposely warping their minds so they'll hate us.
 

Neonit

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PPpfffffftshhhh muahahahahaHAHAHAHAAHAhha
Oh boy, am i glad im not a fan of the franchise. Im really sorry for the people who are. This is low. I would hate to find out that my childhood friends became whores..... This seems pretty much the same to me.

Find new friends. This one is gone.
 

mysecondlife

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Oh man. It certainly has been a while since a company has outwardly given the fans the finger hasn't it?
 

Hairless Mammoth

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We knew it was coming. The one good thing I can say about this trailer is, unlike Castlevania's treatment, it doesn't have a succubus waving her cleavage in the camera while Simon Belmont suggestively fires arrows at her. This trailer is at least trying to sucker in fans of the franchise/genre, while Castlevania's "Erotic Violence" trailer was at least 50% fanservice seduction.

Though, when Konami starts denying any smart offers from other publishers to license their IPs to make actual games, it will really be time to start sharping our pitchforks and stocking up on torches. (They can't be that stupid can they? Well, time will tell.)
 

Scars Unseen

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Between this and the Castlevania Pachislot game, I have something I'd like to say to Konami:

 

The Rogue Wolf

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Jim Sterling has got to be beating his head against his podium right now. Laughing or crying, I don't know, but either way, forehead is meeting plywood.

shrekfan246 said:
stroopwafel said:
And it's not what you think it is.
I dunno, at this point "pachinko machine" is basically the first thing I think with regards to Konami.
For me it's "galloping idiocy".

"Pachinko machine" is a close second, though.