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The Fox Engine: Who Owns It, Konami or the division of Konami that won't exist soon

D

Duplolas

Banned
So I am really curious about what the current state of the Fox Engine is.

Kojima Productions are the ones who produced it, but they produced it for Konami.

I found an article from late 2013 (found linked below) about how Kojima has no plans to license the Fox Engine to small developers. The article itself really doesn't pertain to the question at hand other than imply that Kojima Productions had the final say in whether or not they would be licensing the Fox Engine.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ko...-fox-engine-to-small-developers/1100-6414313/

I haven't been following the news regarding Konami v. Kojima very well so I do not know if this is a topic that has already been discussed or not. So sorry if it already has.

But if Kojima owns the rights to the Fox Engine, most of the games Konami produces uses it, such as Pro Evolution Soccer. So what would that mean for Konami?

~~~~~~

On a semi-related note. Whoever owns the rights to the Fox Engine should totally licence the shit out of it, ESPECIALLY IF ITS KONAMI. I bet they'd love the money and good rep they could get from it right now.

~~~~~~

Also if you don't know what the Fox Engine is:

The Fox Engine is a proprietary cross-platform, cross-generational game engine built by Kojima Productions for use in many Konami games.[1] The engine's development began after the completion of 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4, with the goal of making the "best engine in the world."[2] The first title to use the Fox Engine was Pro Evolution Soccer 2014.

The engine makes it possible for Kojima Productions to develop multiplatform games with a significantly shortened development time[2] and has been described as the first step for the developer to move away from development for a single platform.[3] The engine is named after FOX, a fictional military unit from the Metal Gear series, wherein is also a reflection of Kojima Productions itself, which based its company logo on FOX's fox emblem.
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M

Mr. RHC

Member
EviLore.

no.

JPizzle84 said:
Konami
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image.php


"Sisterrrrrrr.. It's not over, not yet."

...
 
A

akidnamededdy

Banned
KojiPro wasn't really a separate entity from Konami, though, were they? They were a Konami studio and as such that engine belongs to Konami. Right?
 
C

Com_Raven

Member
How is this a question? Kojima Productions is a subsidiary of Konami- anything they will produce belongs to Konami.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Konami.

"The article itself really doesn't pertain to the question at hand other than imply that Kojima Productions had the final say in whether or not they would be licensing the Fox Engine."

This is an artifact of them being the studio that would have to support licensees and thus being able to assess if it was feasible as opposed to having ownership.
 
D

dramatis

Member
It's not as simple as licensing it out for use. Licensed engines require documentation and support as well as continued service (bug fixes and all that). Even if Konami lends the Fox Engine out for licensing, it won't be so well received because chances are, Konami will not provide the necessary backing to ensure smooth development.

Do you think Unreal became popular amongst developers just because the engine was robust?
 
D

Duplolas

Banned
akidnamededdy said:
KojiPro wasn't really a separate entity from Konami, though, were they? They were a Konami studio and as such that engine belongs to Konami. Right?
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Eolz said:
Konami.
Just as Kojima Productions belong to Konami.
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mcrommert said:
Any work done while an employee of a corporation is owned by the corporation

So konami, konami and konami
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JPizzle84 said:
Konami
Click to expand...

Someone in a different article's comment section said this:

In an American company yeah definitely but in the case of Kojima Productions it could very well be something like Fromsoft being published and owning there work and Konami being like Namco and Sony with publishing of Dark and Demon Souls, Bloodborne etc.
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Thats the main thing that got me thinking and made me want to make this thread.

Source of the quote (Comment Section Of): http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/03/konamis-official-word-on-hideo-kojima/
 
B

border

Member
Who would Konami license the engine to? Most major publishers have already created their own engines, and the indie sector is already overcrowded with low-cost game development tools.

Letting Kojima do his own engine is probably seen as a mistake by Konami's top brass, so chances are it will be swept under the rug and only used for future Metal Gear games.
 
Agent_4Seven

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Well, if it belongs to Konami then it will die along with them. I wonder, can Kojima actually buy it from Konami or something?
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
If you're asking in a roundabout way what engine Kojima will use for future projects it will depend on what publisher he goes to (if any).

Unreal and Unity have Japanese documentation. A few publishers might have viable internal engines, but his games need large engine feature sets unless he's scaling way back.

A new engine from scratch is unlikely given that'd be around a 4-5+ year wind up time at this point.
 
G

Garlador

Member
I just realized this whole debacle my have killed the FOX Engine too...

It doesn't look like they have any plans to put it to good use after MGSV.
 
C

Circinus

Member
Kojima Productions is a subsidiary of Konami so if Kojima Productions owns it, then Konami owns it as well obviously.. ;)
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
Nirolak said:
Unreal and Unity have Japanese documentation.
Click to expand...

Would English documentation still be a problem for Japanese developers nowadays?

I cannot imagine a software engineer anymore without the ability to read English texts.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
ElTorro said:
Would English documentation still be a problem for Japanese developers nowadays?

I cannot imagine a software engineer anymore without the ability to read English texts.
Click to expand...
Well with modern engines the designers and artists need to work directly with the tools too.

You design gameplay in UE4 blueprints for example or use them to help animate objects and apply material properties for artists.

This is why engine teams have ballooned from around 5-10 people to 50-100+. The toolsets now do so much.
 
artsi

artsi

Member
Most probably Konami, because they would be stupid otherwise. But it's not impossible for Kojima to own it either, since these things called contracts exist and we don't know what kind have been made.
 
C

CambriaRising

Member
Konami. 100%

They own Kojima Productions in the first place, it was just KCEJ rebranded. Not sure why people are still questioning this.
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
It doesn't matter because Kojima Productions is (was) owned by Konami anyway. Such a bizarre question. It's a bit like asking who owns Kinect; Microsoft or the Xbox Division.
 
L

L Thammy

Member
Would a corporation ever allow an employee to own something as costly to develop and important to its business operations as a game engine? I have a hard time imagining that ever happening.
 
K

Kai

Member
Cardinal rule of the industry. Publisher owns the materials/code - but not the talent. That engine is owned by Konami - but if the developers leave without any of the code on them and create a new engine from their experience - you can believe that Kojima's new studio will have a competent engine made by the developers of the FOX engine.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Kai said:
Cardinal rule of the industry. Publisher owns the materials - but not the talent. That engine is owned by Konami - but if the developers leave without any of the code on them and create a new engine from their experience - you can believe that Kojima's new studio will have a competent engine made by the developers of the FOX engine.
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And in 2019 they can start making their next game.
 
M

minameissteve

Banned
It's depressing to think that KojiPro had been working on it for years (since at least 2008?) and now it's not even going to be put to much good use. I suppose Konami could license it to other devs, but considering all of their idiotic decisions in the past, they might not bother doing anything with it.
 
C

Com_Raven

Member
ElTorro said:
Would English documentation still be a problem for Japanese developers nowadays?

I cannot imagine a software engineer anymore without the ability to read English texts.
Click to expand...

I can't speak to Japan, but it is still quite common in China and Korea. Probably Japan as well, looking at many industry people that use translators/ subtitles.
 
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