Konami CEO Says Mobile Is the ‘Future of Gaming’

In an interview with a Japanese news outlet, Konami CEO Hideki Hayakawa has revealed that his company is going to be focusing on mobile gaming, claiming that it's the future of the industry.

Polygon reports that the company, best known for the Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill franchises, plans to dive head-first into the mobile market, eventually making smartphones and tablets one of their main platforms for gaming.

"Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile," Hayakawa said in a translated version of the interview (via NeoGAF). "Mobile is where the future of gaming lies."

It seems like Konami won't limit themselves to all new ideas either, as Hayakawa refers to MGS and Pro Evolution Soccer when he said "we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile."

We've all heard this story before of a troubled game publisher deciding to move their focus to the mobile markets instead of staying pat. In fact we've heard it as recently as last month when Sega chose to do the same thing. Some may find these actions foreboding, but remember this: both of these publishers have made some questionable errors in judgment in the last few years, Sega with their iconic hedgehog Sonic and Konami with the  likely departure of Hideo Kojima and the cancellation of Silent Hills. Perhaps their financial struggles are worse than we think, but losing rapport with consumers with questionable actions like those are bound to hurt any company's wallets after too long.

We hope that both of these companies come to their sense, grow out of this phase, and come back to the consoles where they belong. We'll be waiting.