The loss of Hideo Kojima may have been the beginning of the end for Konami as we know it, as rumors surface that AAA games will no longer be coming from the publisher, including Metal Gear titles.
Rumors have been circling around Konami for the last several months, and few of them good. From the closing of Kojima Productions, the cancellation of Silent Hills, to the removal of Kojima’s name from the box of Metal Gear Solid V, the signs have been building that something was happening deep within the hierarchy of the Japanese publisher.
Now rumors have surfaced that Konami may be halting all AAA game production in favor of mobile titles and its Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer franchise. The rumors also say that Technology Director Julien Merceron, who was a driving force in the Fox Engine for the Metal Gear Solid series, has left the company over a dispute with management on the future direction of the company.
According to the report from the French site Gameblog, and supposedly confirmed by Eurogamer, no new Metal Gear titles are in the works, and the only AAA game in pre-production is PES. And apparently no AAA game is on the horizon before 2017. There is no mention of the Castlevania or Silent Hill franchises either.
Now, that’s not to say that Konami might not license those franchises out to third-party developers, but at this point, unless you like PES or mobile games, Konami could have very well dropped from the landscape as a company that video game enthusiasts would keep track of.
Keep in mind that this is all rumor and “sources” at this point, and we have reached out to Konami PR for some sort of official comment. We will update if we hear anything back.
