I laugh at the fact that people only started the Fuck Konami thing because of Kojima despite the fact they'd be pulling the same shit for their other developers for years before that.
All I care about is whether they're releasing games I want and with Bomberman they did. If they release a decent/good Castlevania they will have done it again.
Yeah, if I had bailed when
Iga's Castlevania got shafted so that Konami could do Lords of Shadow (ironically, the game that got fully fast-tracked with Kojima's backing), I would have missed out on some pretty good Konami games. They crossed a threshold when the company expressed clear disinterest in producing games I want, though, and it'll take real work to come back from that.
...people pretending like the last two years never happened just so they can play Castlevania again. But hey, I guess Fuck Konami is Forgive Konami now.
I mean, Fuck Konami and all that, but ultimately, you have to ask, what's in it for
me to hold a grudge?
You get the pride of saying "fuck you" to a company (which doesn't mean a lot to them since those execs have already turned their backs on you,) you get to save your dollars (which isn't much since, again, the execs have practically pulled out of our market,) and you also get to be part of the reason why these execs find justification in leaving consumer games (and keeping their jobs as they make more and more casino machines) and putting the final nail in the coffin of all of those great Konami and Hudson brands.
Or...
True enough, Konami Corp deserves to be scoured for how badly it handled Kojima and how it directed its corporate interests into parlor games ... but it's a BIG company, and slagging every aspect of the company for the sins of the Execs is at some point not fair to those trying to stay afloat.
All of these comments we've been reading from "Konami", for example, have been coming from the American Konami office, which was not at all involved in the Kojima fallout (they lost staff too as the LA office dissolved) and has no interest in casino games (I believe they have a separate Konami Amusement office.) They're making these comments because, behind the scenes, they're battling for survival and are doing everything they can to A) sell the few bits of actual consumer games that Konami is still putting out and B) to convince Konami Japan to figure out what it's doing and not abandon gaming. (Partly for their own jobs, but also because Konami is a legacy company with great brands and even some good developers still stuck in the system.) They don't deserve the "Fuck Konami" lines; they're trying in whatever ways they can (small as though their efforts likely are to the top brass) to make a comeback and provide something like what gamers expect out of Konami. I'd actually be in favor of Konami America making a run at producing titles (I assume they were instrumental in the Castlevania Netflix series and also might have had a hand in relationships that led to Bomberman R) and taking over consumer game development handling if Konami Japan continues to shirk it off.
Similarly, Seabass's team is working consistently on PES. They can't go independent (there will probably never again be an independently produced sports game with a pro license,) and they can't abandon their post and expect there to be jobs elsewhere. They've got shitty bosses, but their work is still important.
Back when Konami imploded, we never thought something like Bomberman R would ever happen again. Now, it's a small thing, but the message it is hopefully sending to Konami execs is, "You were wrong to quit on us. We need you to run your company better, you fucks, because we still care about the Konami legacy even if you don't."