FYI Konami is, among other things, a slot machine and systems manufacturer. They sell and lease full slots, licensed and otherwise, probably utilizing iterated versions of the hardware skillsets they developed making arcade games back in the day.
In addition to, and possibly more critical to future growth than, this business is the business of slot management systems and the associated CRM systems needed to operate a casino or gambling business. Konami's product in this space, Synchros, is a newer entry and boasts an array of newer features including integration with mobile apps.
There are a number of competitors in this space but it's not an easy one to break into, regulatory compliance is a big labor and liability overhead factor, so a certain economy of scale is necessary to hang in the game. Konami definitely has the structures in place for this. Competitors with regulatory compliance inroads in North America include Aristocrat Technologies with their OASIS system, Bally (which was recently bought by Shuffle/ShuffleMaster, which itself was recently bought by Scientific Games) and the SDS/Casino Marketplace system, and IGT and their Advantage system. Synchros has been making headway into this market, which is clogged with slow-moving operators with years of proprietary price-fixed entitlement and management structure motivating their development teams to reach the slow crawl at which they move.
In addition, legislation introducing legalized casino gambling (other than Pachinko, which, c'mon... is already gambling) in Japan has made a lot more progress recently than ever before, enough that businesses are banking on a potentially huge market there opening up. Macau was a huge gold rush for a long time but the Chinese government has had its hackles raised over concerns of money laundering and the market is down sharply this year. Japan provides hope to either replace or augment this declining Asian casino revenue, so casino operating companies are willing to invest the capitol on new properties. Of course, new properties means business selling systems and slots, and a Japanese company selling to Japanese casino companies and managers stands to win big due to cultural preference compared to outfits out of Australia and Vegas (or Europe now?) with less impressive tech.
In some territories outside NA, Japan, and China, web and mobile gaming are closing casinos like home consoles closed arcades. I'm not specifically aware if Synchros serves this need or if the tighter mobile app usage you get from it means anything when it comes to online gaming, but it stands to reason. For me, working in the casino industry, Konami could be poised to hit in this space in a big way, having nothing to do with their licensed Neo-Contra slot which, if it succeeds, will not do so based on its brand, with our demographic.
I don't really support this scorched-Earth way of (apparently) exiting the video game industry. Bally didn't need to do it. Williams didn't need to do it. Sega/Sammy, as far as I can tell, is not currently doing it. I wish I had access to numbers to help explain why the AAA and mid-tier videogame development industry is so suddenly unprofitable as to prompt the seeming exit of one of its biggest players. That's the clear confirmation that was the bombshell of this video: Konami is exiting the video game industry. I suppose if your resident auteur starts demanding movie and TV stars and directors and the division becomes unprofitable as a result--you, as management, would have some hard questions to ask yourself about how you let it get that far. But... if I were a CEO... and my primary responsibility was to the shareholders... I can see the business logic leading to decision to amputate the entire division.
I don't support Konami's actions and I think they will earn more ill will and issues long-term with these actions than they know. I just thought you would find interesting my understanding of Konami's standing in the casino space. Sadly I can report that almost nobody I work with will give crap one about any bad gamer PR for the company, there's just too much demographic distance, too little crossover between the two spaces.
If they're trading horses mid-stream than I have to attest I don't think the new horse will buck it. It will be up to the old horse to leave a mark.
