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Super Bunnyhop: Kojima vs. Konami

N

Naked Snake

Member
Super Bunnyhop - Kojima vs. Konami: An Investigation

wZrhM7V.jpg


Jim Sterling also addressed this briefly at the end of his video today and said to expect a dedicated video about it from him soon.


Edit: welp, Konami took it down. New thread discussing the takedown.

Edit 2: Video is back

0wMb7Yc.jpg
 
G

Glitchesarecool

Member
Uhyve said:
I'm at work and can't watch. Anything interesting?
Click to expand...

There's a lot of interesting things going on if it's believable. Unfortunately a lot of it is from one source, and since they're anonymous, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Largely they are rumors around the konami offices, related to a massive restructuring of the company (firings).
 
I

Into

Member
"Burn to the ground" and continue making MGS games might not contradict each other as George believes.

Its possible that burning it to the ground means just shitting out bad MGS games after Kojima, yearly and bleeding the fanbase dry. And then dumping it off to the highest bidder in 4-5 years.

Its a horror scenario, but i dont believe Konami or this CEO of their will just put a lid on it and let it rot. They will milk it until the cow is sick and dead
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Wow, a Youtube personality actually investigating, sending out emails and getting sources instead of repeating and making up stuff. Even if not everything turns out true, I'm honestly, non-sarcastically impressed and will sub to this guy.
 
N

Nyoro SF

Member
Deadstar said:
Anonymous source says:

- Konami is going to burn the MGS franchise into the ground.
- Konami will focus on their gambling business.
Click to expand...

I mean, anyone could say this. lol
If you're going to be an anonymous insider, you better make the info something that someone couldn't just say on the internet using publicly available information.

JoeyJungle said:
Stolen from AAMARMO

In the video he says it's an anonymous source. He said he confirmed their identity but the claims are unverified.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's a bit better. Well, the part about the CEO making it a personal grudge sounds believable.
 
A

Alienous

Member
I could see Konami not being willing to put up the multi-million dollar capital to continue producing Metal Gear Solid games in the fashion that Kojima and his team develops them, especially when the return on investment is 4+ years.

I think Ground Zeroes was telling in how Konami seems to be exerting more control over the franchise, and Ground Zeroes was quite successful financially. It's also interesting that Kojima was dismissed (allegedly) on the 1 year anniversary of Ground Zeroes' release. Because of Ground Zeroes' success I could see the argument being made internally that the franchise could be more lucrative in the hands of someone other that a paternalistic Kojima.

I don't think it was anything more controversial that Konami deciding to take more ownership over the franchise. It does leave the question of "firing" Kojima before the expiration of his contract open, though.
 
R

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
I mentioned this in the other thread, but if this is true then Kojima and "Unit 8" should stop working on the game right now. The integrity of employees should always be put above their work, no matter how highly they think of it.
 
J

Justified

Member
As I said in the other thread; They claims are too egregious for me to believe this, or at least believe is exactly as the video claims, especially if they are they only ones able to be tipped off
 
M

Mr. RHC

Member
So tl;dr is that Konami boss decided to burn down MGS and fire everyone involved because the series was not making enough money?

Ok.
 
K

KillySG10

Neo Member
From the sounds of it, seems like the CEO has gone a bit crazy and is trying to refocus the company entirely on gambling, which if i understand the video correctly, isnt actually legal in Japan yet.

I know its just a rumour, but if its real, seems like Konami is a sinking ship, at least gaming-wise, who knows if its other business' can keep it afloat...

dKqenH6.gif
 
S

Stormblessed

Member
Office rumours are very much games of telephone, but I enjoyed the video. The information was well presented and the disclaimer was a smart thing to have.
 
D

Dr Amazon MD

Member
It doesn't sound too far fetched to me. Likely it's not 100% true, but there does seem to be a correlation between these statements and what's been said previously. This just leaves me with more questions than anything.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
I really wish Kojima could just get a group of people/investors together and try to buy the Metal Gear IP from Konami (and maybe Silent Hill as well).
 
V

Ventara

Member
JoeyJungle said:
Stolen from AAMARMO

In the video he says it's an anonymous source. He said he confirmed their identity but the claims are unverified.
Click to expand...

Obviously it's unverified, but if true, then this situation is pretty bad. Isn't there like a board of directors in Konami that can go against what the CEO says, or is it really all up to the crazy CEO? I have zero business sense, btw.
 
R

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
I'm surprised people are just learning about Super Bunnyhop when their Metal Gear Solid 3 review got super popular a few years back.
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
The unit 8 stuff is true (or at least it's another unit number between 1 and 9), they released a document about this restructuring last month.
 
L

Linkhero1

Member
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the rumors turned out to be true. Not sure what Konami is doing. I was a huge fan during SNES and GBA days.
 
C

Chilled_Eskim01

Member
Great piece by George. I posted this in the Kotaku thread, as I'm a Junior and I hadn't seen anyone post it yet.

It's kind of sad if what that insider says is all true... the company is acting rather childish from what I can see.
 
J

Jb

Member
This is a better explanation of the Konami situation than any write-up from the english speaking press (Gamekult did a really good one too).
 
H

Hypereides

Member
Deadstar said:
Anonymous source says:

- Konami is going to burn the MGS franchise into the ground.
- Konami will focus on their gambling business.
Click to expand...

Sounds like short sighted plan. The MGS IP is currently solid/neutral. Albeit, that can potentially turn into a stale and dull IP if Konami gets careless for the sake of ROI and quick revenue. Even though its just scarce details I hope the Konami heads have made some additional considerations for future outlook.
 
E

ezekial45

Banned
KojiPro acted largely independent from Konami and often kept them in the dark, which really upset the execs at KJPN. One of the big blows to their relationship was the Game Informer spread for MGSV. Not only did the execs at KJPN had no knowledge that was coming out, and but they also learned details about the game from the article along with everyone else. Which of course pissed them off immensely.

This was a long time coming, unfortunately.

Anyway, this was a wonderful video. Great job, SBH.
 
B

bigkrev

Member
Trying to force people to quit instead of firing them is not an uncommon tactic- it can save the company money on severance packages or other things stipulated in contracts.
 
S

Shauni

Member
Justified said:
As I said in the other thread; They claims are too egregious for me to believe this, or at least believe is exactly as the video claims, especially if they are they only ones able to be tipped off
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. This sounds like too much of a "tell the internet what they want to hear, only multiplied by 100" kind of thing to me. All sounds a bit fishy to me.
 
J

Justified

Member
Graphics Horse said:
The unit 8 stuff is true (or at least it's another unit number between 1 and 9), they released a document about this restructuring last month.
Click to expand...

Yea Its Production Department 8, Dont know if its the new KojiPro, but with Sadaaki Kaneyoshi being the GM (and Division Manger of Production Division 3) its more than likely
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Ventara said:
Obviously it's unverified, but if true, then this situation is pretty bad. Isn't there like a board of directors in Konami that can go against what the CEO says, or is it really all up to the crazy CEO? I have zero business sense, btw.
Click to expand...

With a lot of the recent moves from Konami indicating that they're getting out of the packaged retail gaming business altogether, they may not care that much if the CEO is getting strong results from their other business ventures. They've done well in the gambling machine sector, mobile is a strength, and their health clubs in Japan have taken off pretty well. Those don't have the same kind of overhead and delayed results you'd get from a AAA game, particularly in this case with Kojima having a reputation for being a perfectionist. In terms of strictly looking at it from a financial perspective, what they're doing makes sense, even if they're generating a lot of bad PR from the half-assed way that they're deflecting inquiries into what's going on with their packaged games.
 
R

RipperGrim

Member
The part about the Dance Dance revolution developers being put into one group sounds like what they want to do with Kojipro, make it all one entity. Honestly the document sounds legit enough to me, maybe that's a good enough reason to doubt it's validity though lol.

Alienous said:
I don't think it was anything more controversial that Konami deciding to take more ownership over the franchise. It does leave the question of "firing" Kojima before the expiration of his contract open, though.
Click to expand...

The Logo removals are pretty telling though, no way is that normal practice when someone leaves, it stinks of a personal grudge.
 
S

skelekey

Member
Justified said:
As I said in the other thread; They claims are too egregious for me to believe this, or at least believe is exactly as the video claims, especially if they are they only ones able to be tipped off
Click to expand...


It doesn't sound all that crazy in light of what has happened. If you told me after last years PT demo that Konami would fire Kojima and can the project I wouldn't have believed you but now, I'm open to interpretations.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Time for everyone to move on. Only thing left to do is decide what to do with all of the old Konami IP's.
 
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