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New Nikkei articles shares some information about the situation at Konami

Blablurn

Member
Here is the link: http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO89986400R30C15A7000000/

It's in Japanese. I gathered some information from a conversation between Mark MacDonald and @serkantoto from Twitter.

Dr. Serkan Toto @serkantoto

@JeffGrubb @markmacd The article says that Kojima fell from grace because MGS 5 got delayed. It also talks about certain work conditions at

Dr. Serkan Toto @serkantoto

@markmacd Actually, there is more. The article says employees get controlled with cameras+punch clocks etc

Dr. Serkan Toto @serkantoto

@CSX142857 @JeffGrubb @markmacd The article lists 2 other options for Konami, one being letting people work as security in their HQ. No joke

Here are some more tidbits

Thomas James @iiotenki

It doesn't stop with emails. Lunchtime leave is regulated with time cards. Those who exceed allotted time are outed within company.

Thomas James @iiotenki

Jesus, Konami's internal culture sounds poisonous. For one, email with outsiders is done with a randomized email address changed regularly.

Thomas James @iiotenki

One employee feels turning point was when Konami launched Dragon Collection for mobile. Lots of money made with sub-$1 mil budget.

Thomas James @iiotenki

As already known, Love Plus creator left. Development halted for Tokimeki Memori and Suikoden, as well.

Thomas James @iiotenki

Jesus, this Nikkei article on Konami. $80+ million spent on MGS5's dev as of April if it's to be believed.

Thomas James
@iiotenki

Employees deemed useless have been known to do assemblyline work, security guard detail, cleanup at fitness clubs.

Sources:

Most of the stuff is here:

https://twitter.com/iiotenki


And Marks conversation can be found here: https://twitter.com/markmacd/status/628058868161998848
 

pants

Member
It doesn't stop with emails. Lunchtime leave is regulated with time cards. Those who exceed allotted time are outed within company.

fhJXUjv.gif


Hey Stevens i see you took a 60m45s lunch
 

Reveirg

Member
Regulating employees' hours with time cards isn't that uncommon for big-sized game devs AFAIK.

Some of the other stuff in that story though... yikes.
 

Boke1879

Member
Yup reading the tweets of those who are reading the article and it seems the situation at Konami extends far past Kojima.

Seriously making producers do cleanup work at their fitness clubs. Seems like the upper mangament is pushing out the creators.
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
$80 million for MGSV?

Holy bananas. We don't get much info on development budgets, but wow.

Wonder what FFXV looks like... ;.;
 

pants

Member
Regulating employees' hours with time cards isn't that uncommon for big-sized game devs AFAIK.

Some of the other stuff in that story though... yikes.

Really? I work in dev and the only thing thats ever required of me is to deliver on time, on spec and be available if there are impediments. Thats it.
 

Takao

Banned

Squire

Banned
Been following the tweets and waiting for this thread to pop up.

Yeah, MGSV is clearly the definite end of an era on multiple levels.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
That's not an insane amount for a AAA console game in 2015.

It's still huge by JP standards, and there's also the opportunity cost to consider; when management sees they can pull massive profits with tiny/cheap games, they start to resent expensive projects that require hundreds of people and don't bring in as much profit.
 

bigkrev

Member
80 million- they would need to sell something like 3 million copies at full price just to break even.

Jesus, what the fuck were they thinking?!?
 

Boke1879

Member
Wasn't MGS4 around 80 million?

I'm sure Konami had an internal date for Phantom pain to come out but I'm glad Kojima never publicly said a date. He must have known the game wouldn't meet their deadline
 

B.K.

Member
I wonder if that $80 figure includes costs developing the Fox Engine. I don't know anything about engine development, but I assume it's not cheap.
 

Sophia

Member
The part about cameras and punch cards sounds absurd. Might there even be laws against such a thing...?
 

Gator86

Member
80 million- they would need to sell something like 3 million copies at full price just to break even.

Jesus, what the fuck were they thinking?!?

Kojima only uses top of the line poop gags. You get what you pay for.

In all seriousness though, it's no wonder he's on the street now. That's a ton of money to spend on a title like MGS.
 

Squire

Banned
It's still huge by JP standards, and there's also the opportunity cost to consider; when management sees they can pull massive profits with tiny/cheap games, they start to resent expensive projects that require hundreds of people and don't bring in as much profit.

The money stuff is honestly the only reasonable details coming out of this.
 
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