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.