Konami Rep Says They’re Still Doing Console Games

Despite a flood of rumors circulating the net, a Konami employee claims that they're still focused on doing console games.

A Konami employee has responded to the multiple claims saying that the company was dropping out of the console gaming market in favor of making mobile apps, Nintendo Life reports. While this statement is from a customer service representative, who is towards the bottom rung of the ladder in terms of knowing Konami's future business decisions, it's still an official statement from a company employee.

The text might be small to read, but here is a part of what the employee said:

I can promise you that we're definitely not leaving Metal Gear behind or anything like that. I know some blogs were claiming that online this morning, but I'm not really sure where they'd be getting that from.

We're still definitely working on console games and franchises such as Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, PES and all the rest.

I know there are a lot of folks out there that really want us to say it's otherwise, for some reason but it's just not true. Those teams are definitely still working on designing and programming great games.

For the past week, every corner of the Internet has been saying that Konami is ceasing all major console game development after the next Pro Evolution Soccer release. This rumor was first sparked by the departure of Julien Merceron, a technology director who was hired a few years ago to oversee the Fox Engine's development along with Konami shifting some of their attention onto mobile games.

The reason why we didn't bother reporting on Konami supposedly bowing out of console gaming was because everything was speculation. We already did stories on both Merceron's departure (Merceron has jumped from job to job throughout the gaming industry over the past decade, including a few high positions at Square Enix) and Konami's stance on mobile gaming. Everything else that was floating around the Internet was merely speculation based on the two separate stories, where one website reported that Konami MIGHT be done with console game development with Merceron gone, the CEO's stance on mobile gaming and having no major titles announced other than Pro Evolution Soccer. The ongoing Internet game of telephone spun that speculation into headlines like "Konami Quits Console Games" and "Konami Abandons AAA Console Gaming," which shouldn't be said unless there's some actual proof.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is likely a shoe-in for Game of the Year awards all over the place and is selling quite well. Sure it was expensive to make (and unfinished in terms of its third chapter), but Konami has already been planning to make more Metal Gear games, even without Hideo Kojima. A few months ago, we saw headlines all over the place about Silent Hills being cancelled, so Konami knows they've still got a large audience and a lot of widespread interest from the public — it'd be stupid to throw that potential money out the window. Nevertheless, we'll just have to wait and see where Konami goes in a Kojima-less world.

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