Maybe because he's ostensibly paid to inform the reader, not dogpile on the subjects he's interested in.
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Kotaku: Konami Sucks
- Thread starter BY2K
- Start date
Maybe because he's ostensibly paid to inform the reader, not dogpile on the subjects he's interested in.
TheSlySoul
Member
If Jim Sterling is any clue, they will probably say nothing and quietly block/blacklist them.
P.T. actually stood for Pachinko Teaser.
shiftplusone
Member
they just kinda stopped making suikoden, castlevania, etc
I think the perception is that they've decided to openly shit on silent hill and MGS which is a bit different than not talking about a series.
Who are you to tell him what he's being paid for?
A reader whose clicks drive the ad revenue that pays his salary.
The customer isn't always king. Sometimes he's just an asshole.
Ground Zeroes sold 2 million, how is that a failure for a demo? Sure it didn't sell 5-6 million like all mainline games, but GZ wasn't a mainline game in the first place, it was a prologue/demo.
Patrick Klepek
furiously molesting tim burton
Had no idea this spawned a thread. I was too busy watching the Bulls roll over to LeBron last night.
The criticism about the headline is interesting. I've only been at Kotaku/Gawker a few months, but one of the things they/we try to do is reflect the emotion of pieces. When we come up with a headline, the author pitches a few in a group chat, and we mull over the one that works best, tweak them, etc. I came up with a few others:
With P.T.'s Deletion, Konami Is Erasing Gaming History
Konami Sucks
The Problems With P.T.'s Deletion Are Bigger Than P.T.
I Really Hate Konami Right Now
Those are the four I pitched. All of them are accurate to the post. #2 and #4 were mostly jokes, but I did feel that way! Everyone immediately gravitated towards the second one, so we went with it. Yes, it's slightly hyperbolic, but done so in a way that's meant to capture how myself (and other players) feel about a piece of gaming history being trashed without thought or explanation.
So criticism noted, but I feel okay about it.
I spent days researching a Let's Play story that went up earlier in the day. (Perhaps understandably, it did a fraction of the traffic.)
http://kotaku.com/who-invented-lets-play-videos-1702390484#_ga=1.243881541.1195355817.1427382822
Feel free to click on that one and support our ability to research interesting stories!
The criticism about the headline is interesting. I've only been at Kotaku/Gawker a few months, but one of the things they/we try to do is reflect the emotion of pieces. When we come up with a headline, the author pitches a few in a group chat, and we mull over the one that works best, tweak them, etc. I came up with a few others:
With P.T.'s Deletion, Konami Is Erasing Gaming History
Konami Sucks
The Problems With P.T.'s Deletion Are Bigger Than P.T.
I Really Hate Konami Right Now
Those are the four I pitched. All of them are accurate to the post. #2 and #4 were mostly jokes, but I did feel that way! Everyone immediately gravitated towards the second one, so we went with it. Yes, it's slightly hyperbolic, but done so in a way that's meant to capture how myself (and other players) feel about a piece of gaming history being trashed without thought or explanation.
So criticism noted, but I feel okay about it.
I spent days researching a Let's Play story that went up earlier in the day. (Perhaps understandably, it did a fraction of the traffic.)
http://kotaku.com/who-invented-lets-play-videos-1702390484#_ga=1.243881541.1195355817.1427382822
Feel free to click on that one and support our ability to research interesting stories!
Baraka in the White House
2-Terms of Kombat
Konami's Facebook page is hilarious. They're still hawking PES and waxing nostalgic about Castlevania, of all things. Meanwhile the comment sections are brutal.
No their work shouldn't be frogetten, but buying the game still supports Konami. If you're going to act all big and morally righteous and say "you don't want to support Konami" then don't buy MGS5. Because if you do then you've sacrificed nothing and you're boycott has nothing behind it. It's not like they have anything else to offer for the majority of gamers and even then the moment they announce something attractive I don't their "boycott" will stand.
Exactly. I mean I don't actually care what people do. I just find all the "boycott" posts hilariously self serving.
Konami is exiting the console market because it isn't very profitable. Production costs have risen so high that risks are incredibly expensive, which is why we're seeing so few new IPs and so few major releases, period. Only the very few winners at the very top (Call of Duty, GTA, Elder Scrolls) are making real money. To make matters worse, development costs continue to rise relentlessly. And so Konami are leaving, more or less, for other markets like gambling and fitness centers and so forth.
You can't boycott Konami, they're already boycotting you.
You can't boycott Konami, they're already boycotting you.
Ground Zeroes had "shipped" 1 million copies across 4 platforms. That's the only sales data I can find on it.
http://gematsu.com/2014/04/metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes-ships-one-million-copies
Obviously it's done more on Steam since it was released there later, but those sales don't bode particularly well for Phantom Pain.
Buying MGS5 at this point is a hell lot more of supporting Kojima than Konami, they don't want your filthy gamer's money so might as well throw it in their face at the last quality product with their name on it.
You know how Square has moved a great deal of their products to mobile? How sega has moved virtually all their production there?
How Capcom's output seems muted and slow? How level 5 has begun migrating to mobile, too? And now Konami is heading off to gambling/fitness center/etc. land?
The relentless push of production costs have driven us here, and gamers themselves are a significant driver of that relentless budgetary increase. These companies are, in effect, boycotting "hardcore" gamers -- and they are much better at boycotting gamers than gamers are at boycotting them.
How Capcom's output seems muted and slow? How level 5 has begun migrating to mobile, too? And now Konami is heading off to gambling/fitness center/etc. land?
The relentless push of production costs have driven us here, and gamers themselves are a significant driver of that relentless budgetary increase. These companies are, in effect, boycotting "hardcore" gamers -- and they are much better at boycotting gamers than gamers are at boycotting them.
The Lamonster
Member
Omegasquash
Member
It's funny. Never really got into Metal Gear, just wasn't my style. Tried real hard on Silent Hill and maybe I'll go back to it one day...I've got them, anyway.
Fuck Konami for killing Hudson man. That wasn't cool...could have sold it off to someone. Nintendo would have been clutch, y'know? Lots of opportunity with Bomberman. Shit, even Milon. I'd have bought something with Milon in it.
For all my time spent playing Castlevania and Contra though man, feels ain't enough.
Fuck Konami for killing Hudson man. That wasn't cool...could have sold it off to someone. Nintendo would have been clutch, y'know? Lots of opportunity with Bomberman. Shit, even Milon. I'd have bought something with Milon in it.
For all my time spent playing Castlevania and Contra though man, feels ain't enough.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Konami's been on a slow gradual decline after the 16 bit era. It was gradual, but it was there. This isn't an overnight thing.
Spacejaws
Member
It's official. Konami are godamn useless.
adamantypants
Member
Neuromancer
Member
Patrick is doing the Lord's work. He's right, and Konami could reverse a lot of this stuff if they wanted to but they're too stubborn.
It's sad remembering them as one of my favorite publishers.
It's sad remembering them as one of my favorite publishers.
I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow. How am I to blame for any of this? I buy all kinds of games, in fact I buy any game that interests me enough no matter how good it looks or how much it cost to make.
J'aime Fils-Aime
Neo Member
I haven't kept up much with the Konami/Kojima drama, so I may have missed, but it's clear that Kojima is blameless in this whole ordeal?
What I've noticed is that to a gamer, boycotting usually involves them buying games they want and not buying games they don't want. By not buying a lot of games that came out because I didn't have much interest in them, I've been acting like a true activist!
What I've noticed is that to a gamer, boycotting usually involves them buying games they want and not buying games they don't want. By not buying a lot of games that came out because I didn't have much interest in them, I've been acting like a true activist!
Cow Mengde
Banned
Bu-bu-but people were telling me budget increase wouldn't be that big after the transition to HD settled down.
So I was curious about the Ground Zeroes sales so I did go back and look it up in Konami's financial reports, rather than assuming Wikipedia had complete sales data.
Metal Gear sales as of June 30, 2014 - 570,000 copies
Metal Gear sales as of September 30, 2014 - 1,009,000 copies
Metal Gear sales as of December 31, 2014 - 1,990,000 copies
I think Ground Zeroes killed Metal Gear. They could only clear half a million units despite launching on 4 platforms across 3 sales territories. Most of its sales occurred more than six months after release, which is to say it was probably sold at a very steep discount.
Whether or not it's fair to judge the franchise's strength based on a retail demo is another issue, but I think these results caused Konami to lose faith in the project.
Metal Gear sales as of June 30, 2014 - 570,000 copies
Metal Gear sales as of September 30, 2014 - 1,009,000 copies
Metal Gear sales as of December 31, 2014 - 1,990,000 copies
I think Ground Zeroes killed Metal Gear. They could only clear half a million units despite launching on 4 platforms across 3 sales territories. Most of its sales occurred more than six months after release, which is to say it was probably sold at a very steep discount.
Whether or not it's fair to judge the franchise's strength based on a retail demo is another issue, but I think these results caused Konami to lose faith in the project.
Goldenroad
Member
Klepeck is only about 6 years LTTP. This may have been relevant in 2009, but now it's just beating a dead horse....which would actually make for a more fun game than anything Konami has put out since MGS 4.
hemo memo
Member
But they said they will continue developing more games in the series.
Tongue in check speculation due to Jim Sterling getting black listed by Konami for bad mouthing them sometime back.
So, would I be justified to rant and rave at my fellow gamers for being entitled little asshats that need to be weaned off their perpetual AAAA gaming diet?
Because the older I get, the more I'm feeling the craving to do just that.
Why, back in my day... we played even broken games. And we LIKED them. *cough* *wheeze*
Make this man a member, NOW.
Cow Mengde
Banned
We didn't have Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim back in my days.
That's a real shame. I like AAA quality games.
Looks like David Cage's Quantic Dream will be our last bastion.
Muppet of a Man
Member
But there are many people here (myself included) advocating for creative, gameplay-focused mid-budget games that rely less on high production values, cinematic experiences, marketing dollars, and "infinite" content.
But when your voting dollars are outpaced by those of the majority of console gamers buying the annual CODs, Battlefields, Assassin's Creeds, and Sports games, as well as the GTAs (to be fair GTAs are really good), it seems there is no convincing these publishers otherwise.
All this hate started after the news that Kojima was "fired" by Konami...
What if Kojima was the one that fucked Konami and because of him we will not have Silent Hills anymore?
Yes, I know that bomberman, castlevania are not the same as before.. but internet seems to exaggerate sometimes
What if Kojima was the one that fucked Konami and because of him we will not have Silent Hills anymore?
Yes, I know that bomberman, castlevania are not the same as before.. but internet seems to exaggerate sometimes
I'm not sure why Konami bought Hudson to begin with. They didn't end up doing anything with them. Maybe some executive was drunk and pining for the glory days of the '80s.
Tizoc
Member
Hey there are Hudson games on PSN too, don't deny people that Hudson goodness for Ninty's region locking shenanigans!
paolo11
Member
I have a question. Based on your statement, does it mean in this generation, we will see fewer IPs or sequels compared last generation?
Handy Fake
Member
Said it before: Konami are all about the pachinko now. Sony should make an offer for the IPs, stipulating Konami are still allowed to use the trademarks for their gambling machines. It's win/win for everyone.
TheBryanJZX90
Member
I do too, and I say let him write whatever the fuck he wants! Who are you to deny both him the opportunity to write something he wants to write, and me the opportunity to read something I want to read?
It's based on this:
Unless another Metal Gear released in the same time period, all of those sales were for GZ.
Demon Lizardman
Banned
So, if AAA games like COD, GTA, ACreed and other fail, would it crash the market?
It's based on this:
Unless another Metal Gear released in the same time period, all of those sales were for GZ.
As I noted in my followup post, 50% of those sales were more than 5-6 months after launch, and as such they were likely sold at a huge discount. They only got 500K in the first three months, which I think probably soured Konami management on the game's potential.
They lost faith in the project (MGS5), not the Metal Gear brand itself. Though honestly I'd be surprised if Konami actually continues making big-scale Metal Gear games.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Market's been crashing since 2005 or 2006. Look at all the companies going out of business since then.
I just want to say I wasn't complaining about Konami and Hudson in the abstract -- while I can buy the argument that Silent Hills might not be a great business decision, Konami letting Hudson's back catalog rot doesn't seem to make sense from any perspective, and I really wish someone with a voice out there would make this a bigger issue.
I'm not denying anyone anything. Are we not both allowed to have valid, thoughtful but diametrically opposed perspectives on this?
Demon Lizardman
Banned
True, how do we stop this? Will indies take over if AAA start to die?
Cow Mengde
Banned
Demon Lizardman
Banned
Would that be good or bad?