The Current State of Konami

[LanceHeart]

Konami really isn't. I can name about as many dead or dying Konami franchises as I could for Capcom.

Mega Man's problem is that it never actually sold well. The business model was that they would make a ton of games on the same engine in the hopes that middling sales over four to six titles would keep their return on investment out of the red.

[suiken]

I wouldn't call the recent success of megaman a ground breaking one. But it sell enough to warrant a sequel. The Star Force series combined almost a million sold in japan despite it's bad reception. I'm sure if they attached DMC or RE title on a megaman game, people would be sucker to buy it.

[LanceHeart]

No, not really. The Mega Man franchise truly seems like the odd man out in terms of Capcom's "flagship" franchises. It doesn't sell very well, but has the most in-franchise releases out of any of Capcom's properties (don't count re-releases or ports). The recent foibles with Legends 3, Universe and Online being canceled in rapid succession are mostly due to them being announced way too early in their development cycle. They've already stated multiple times that the franchise isn't dead, which is more than I can say for Konami...

Konami doesn't really go that route with its franchises. If it considers a franchise dead, it won't bother reviving it for a decade (if ever). Considering how poorly the recent PSP Suikoden game sold compared to Suikoden Tierkreis or even Suikoden V, we're maybe one release away from Konami calling it quits. After all, Konami's video game division seems to live and die on the Metal Gear release cycle, which seems to be putting a severe hamper on their ability to take risks with other titles.

[suiken]

I remember megaman being a rival of castlevania because both are platformers. It's not like CV games didn't flop. In fact, many of it's games are flop, especially the PS2 titles. At least, Konami is keeping the franchise alive in handhelds until Lords of Shadows came. Same could be said in Suikoden. If I were capcom, I would pull a "Lords of Shadow" on the franchise and see what it can do before calling it quits.

Konami stated that many of their staff loves the series. At least they are keeping it on its breath with the handheld spinoffs.

[freshmetal]

Konami's pre-E3 conference is less than an hour away. What are the odds of some Suikoden news? My guess is "not good".

[Antimatzist]

Konami's pre-E3 conference is less than an hour away. What are the odds of some Suikoden news? My guess is "not good".

What are the odds of the impossible? Anything Suikoden related would be nice, like saying "We'll support the PS4 PSN or whatever it will be called with classic Konami games", then they show a list with classic Konami games including some Suikodens.

Chance for that: Also 0.

[LanceHeart]

It's come and gone and the only two things that came out of it are that Snake (Big Boss) is no longer voiced by the same guy... and Patrick Stewart is coming back for the next God of W--err, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows.

[Antimatzist]

COmpletely unexpected from me, Konami announced that they will deliver one of the launch titles for Nintendo's new Switch console. That alone is surprising enough, but it will be a long forgotten IP - Bomberman! I think this is the first console Bomberman in 7 years.

Might this mark the return of Konami to console video games? Probably not, this is a very low-profit game, but it might be fun. Hopefully, somebody is currently looking through Konami's archives and finds the many gems which Konami produced in the past - and will release them at some point.

[Oppenheimer]

Didn't even know they had that property. But they also announced that new (terrible looking) Metal Gear game a few months ago so they're not completely out of the game yet. Not that it really matters. They don't actually care about video games in a way that would produce a good Suikoden game anymore. . . And that's okay. I'm okay with that. There are lots of great games out there these days. They're just unfortunately not going to be in the Suikoden world we love.

[borjitasstoi]

The reality of this is Suikoden since Woven Web Century suikoden its not the same... in other words in tierkreis i find small amount of my suikoden essebce has i grow but the last game lost completely the essence you change the name and you never imagine its anoher suikoden from suikoden series (in my opinion) (sorry i need improve my english i know)...