Konami have released a trailer for the pachinko (it’s a form of japanese gambling machine) version of its Silent Hill 2 game, a game widely regarded as one of the best survival horror games of all time. Now when considering Mr. Hideki Hayakawa’s background within Konami as the Executive Producer behind Dragon Collection, a widely successful and profitable mobile game, it would make sense that he would lead the company to a field he was confident in. The major issue is not only that Konami is now taking franchises such as Silent Hill and copy-pasting their themes and lore for the western equivalent for a slot machine, but the methods they’ve used to do so.
It was recently reported that Konami had been mistreating its employees to convince them to resign to bleed out their traditional game development talent in favour of mobile development. Even the conflicting reports still contain allegations of petty and vindictive contempt alongside a corporate structure so rigid and archaic that its employees find themselves lacking the basic resources required to do their job leading to damaging stress.
To me the trailer for the pachi Silent Hill was the smoking gun, the proof that the company I once truly admired really didn’t care about the products they were making.
But the really sad part is, this isn’t even the first time they’ve pulled this stunt. Remember Castlevania? Not if Konami has anything to do about it.
Now I’m not an anti-mobile gaming fanatic by any stretch (Fallout Shelter is in my top-5-have-to-play when it comes out for android) but it’s not hard to see that Konami has no regard for the products they create. Video games might be a business but it’s a CREATIVE business and this souless cash in on franchises that have artistically inspired and brought joy to so many people is just…. dirty and proves that Konami simply does not care, about its products or its consumers.
