The Foot-Shooting Foolishness of Konami

Konami, are you kidding me?



Really?



Really really?



Never get rid of the face of the franchise, no matter what. I argued this in baseball, and I am arguing this in business. Never, ever, ever get rid of the face of the franchise unless you have an awesome backup plan. And I am sure that Konami doesn’t have that backup plan. Konami survives on everything BUT gaming, and trust me that can only take you so far if you are one of the biggest gaming companies out there---eventually that expensive tab needs to be paid for.

Konami is nowhere near what it used to be in the gaming industry, they are a long way removed from their Turtles in Time days. Their revenue definitely doesn’t come from their video games because that aspect is down to the bare minimum. They have Silent Hill (seen better days), Pro Evolution Soccer (getting mauled by the FIFA franchise), Yu-Gi-Oh (The Abridged Series has higher ratings) and of course Metal Gear Solid (which may never recover after Kojima’s departure).

Why would you ever manage to lose the man responsible for your best-selling games in the past decade? 4 of the best-selling games in Konami’s history are guess what: Metal Gear Solid games. Why would you get rid of the man that gave you your only two games that sold over 6 million? And even more astonishing is that those Metal Gear games were only on the PS2. Why get rid of the man that has earned you nearly 2 billion in revenue through his creations? Kojima isn’t just a name, it’s a brand, it’s a guarantee that your video game will be good.

It may have been a power struggle within the industry, but Kojima earned his power by being one of the top developers in the industry. Kojima earned this power by providing the effort that the company he worked for could not and did not provide. Konami has been merely playing business chess for years as opposed to improving their brands of Silent Hill, Pro Evolution, Castlevania, and even the acquired franchises like Bomberman, Adventure Island, and Bonk (It has been over 20 years since a true Bonk game….are you kidding me?).

You keep him, you keep the Walt Disney of your company on board. At all costs. There really is no excuse. You know once he goes, most of his talented followers will leave as well. It’s the equivalent of removing five pieces from the center of any jenga set. Kojima is to Konami what Miyamoto is to Nintendo---absolutely irreplaceable, especially when your company doesn’t churn out the Nintendo profits.



Make nice. Buy him a car. Buy him a plane. Give him company stake. Do whatever it takes. Because of Kojima leaves, then Metal Hear Solid will slip and ultimately so will your company.





I am sure Sony (and maybe even Hollywood) is eagerly awaiting his departure……….

The First White Flag of the Eighth Generation

Nintendo Gamecube Release: 2001
Nintendo Wii Annoucement: 2005


Nintendo Wii Release: 2006
Nintendo WiiU Annoucement: 2011


Nintendo WiiU Release: 2012
Nintendo Successor Announcement: March 2015


Abandon ship gamers. Leave the WiiU right now. Nintendo couldn’t even wait three full years to announce that they have a successor to the rapidly-decaying Nintendo WiiU. And yes it’s just a codename, and yes we all knew this day would come. However, you make these major announcements only when your momentum with the current console starts running out. And after a bit north of two years, the Big N has pretty much unveiled their lack of hope and faith in their third-place system by not announcing a successor, but then even mentioning how its entering the smartphone business after years of denial and refusing to accept the technology. 

Run, run away fast Nintendo fans. There is nothing to see here. Yes we have a great Smash Brothers and superb sort-of 3-D Mario game in the console, but besides Zelda (and maybe Star Fox? Where are the details?) what is there to look forward to? I don’t hear of another console Pokemon game, another Donkey Kong game, no Fire Emblem, no F-Zero, no Kid Icarus, no Wario, nothing. It looks like even the first-party lineup has been severely scaled back. The 3DS got an astonishing 3 major Zelda titles. The WiiU couldn’t get 3 of anything. There is a chance that the WiiU by the end of its run won’t even outsell the Nintendo Gamecube; which is a ridiculous shame because the XBox One and the PS4 are selling at record pace and the gaming industry is bigger than ever.

And if you think I might be slightly looking too much into this; this comes after Miyamoto admits that there won’t be a 3-D Mario game. What Nintendo system doesn’t get the big Mario game? One that is being abandoned, that’s what.

Of course Nintendo is going to not reveal any specific details until at the earliest E3 2016, so they can nab whoever might be left in considering to purchase one thanks to Skyrim Zelda looming on the horizon. Not only does the WiiU get consistently outsold by the PS3, but even the Vita is performing better. Third-party companies have already left, and not even a good Wind Waker bundle and a price cut could remedy a positive solution. Unlike what happened with the N64 and Gamecube, Nintendo has decided to quietly pull the plug early before any further damage is done.

Whatever the Nintendo NX becomes, the company needs to learn from the mistakes made in the past five years with the Wii’s final years and the WiiU disaster. If you don’t own a WiiU yet, really think about it before purchasing one. There are good games to be played here, that part is true. However do you really want to now make an investment on a console that slowly but surely being abandoned by pretty much everybody?



The white flag has been raised. The eighth generation has pretty much become a two-console race.

The Shifting Culture of Third-Party Publishing

Old-school gamers, let it go: the 90s are over.

We will never see what we witnessed in the 90s ever again. The business of gaming has changed far too much. And the latest, greatest example is Sega deciding to ditch console gaming altogether at the same time as Titanfall 2 being announced as multi-platform as opposed to just being an XBox One exclusive like the original.

Those backyard wars days are over. Companies don’t team up anymore, they just join all the parties that want to participate. You now need to fetch extra money to have exclusive material. The XBox and the Playstation has had a similar lineup of games for the past decade. This is why their sales become eerily similar in recent generations and recent times:

PS3: 85 million
XBox 360: 84 million
PS4 (In 2015): 1.5 million
XBox One (In 2015): 650,000


However the close numbers from the 90s was because the entire world was split between choosing the Genesis and the Super Nintendo: two drastically different pieces of hardware with similar power but totally dissimilar lineup of games. You could go with the sports-heavy, more mature, more underground Sega Genesis, or go with the Japanese-friendly, platform-heavy, family-oriented Super Nintendo. Third-party companies were picking sides, trying to figure out the winning team while simultaneously establishing stronger relationships with whomever they picked. Capcom picked Nintendo, EA picked Sega, Square Soft picked Nintendo, and Disney/Virgin Interactive picked Sega.

Nowadays, good luck getting a major third-party publisher choose you and only you. Grand Theft Auto used to belong to just Sony: now the XBox shares the series. Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are Japanese favorites that found their way to both Playstation and XBox. Nowadays you need a strong first-party lineup and a good slew of indie games to separate from the rest---which fully explains why PS4 is outperforming the XBox One.

Currently the best-selling game in the planet is The Order: 1886, a Sony-published game. The best-selling game of 2015 so far? Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, a Nintendo-published game. Depending on third-party companies to cater only to you is a pipe dream; games have become more expensive to produce and contribute, and why limit yourself to one hardware when you can also make money on the competitive machine?

Titanfall 2 becoming a PS4 game as well as an XBox One game should not have surprised anybody. Although the original did well on the XBox systems with over 4 million sold, wouldn’t it be better to have your game available to 32 million systems as opposed to 12 million? On a business standpoint, it only makes too much sense. Microsoft however needs to see that their first-party offerings must be stronger since their most successful new franchise is now becoming a Sony property.

Those playground arguments nowadays sure are more boring, since the top two systems have nearly the same games to choose from. This is why more focus has been made on graphics and the specs. There is no Mario vs. Sonic—you can actually now find Sonic across all the platforms, console-wise and handheld-wise. There are only a handful of games that each system has exclusive to themselves. Of course there’s Nintendo but it’s consistently remained a third-wheel whether it’s frighteningly ahead of the pack (Nintendo Wii 2007-2009) or far behind (Nintendo Gamecube 2001-2006, Nintendo WiiU 2012-Now).

There is a very thin line between choosing a PS4 over the XBox, and vice versa. This is very contrasting to what was occurring in the 1990s. Even different companies were developing the same game for the system they had chosen; Aladdin was made by Capcom for the SNES and was made by Virgin for the Sega Genesis. Then let’s not forget when pretty much everybody joined the Playstation team, leaving little to nothing for the N64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, and XBox. That third-party lineup of friends for Sony was amazing from 1995-2005. Third-party business now focuses on achieving the most widespread amount of exposure to hit as much money as possible. To accomplish this, you simply can’t pick sides anymore.

Can’t behave like the 90s. Sega is officially gone, Nintendo’s punch is weaker, there is no Midway, there is no Akklaim, there is no Neversoft, and we are close to seeing the end of Capcom if nothing is done to help them. The game has changed. There is much more money involved, from the spending to the earnings. With Sega gone, an entire chapter of gaming history has pretty much reached its final page.





And we never got that sequel to F-Zero GX….

PS2: The Sixth Generation Beatdown That Can Never Be Duplicated

The Playstation 2 is turning 15 years old, and it seems like just yesterday it was pounding the competition with minimal effort. The PS2 is easily the most successful console in the history of the gaming universe, and although there are some that came close (Nintendo Wii was well on pace, Nintendo DS missed by inches) none could match the hardware and software sales that was attached to that behemoth. As a matter of fact Sony remains afloat in the business world because of what the PS2 accomplished.



There are tons of reasons why the PS2 did so well during the sixth generation (and even the beginnings of the seventh generation). It was a mix of underwhelming competition, hardware options that made it the better sale, much better lineup of games, great third-party relationship, superior marketing campaign, and in the end because its successor took a very long time to warm up to gamers. It was the perfect storm that allowed this system to sell well for two different gaming generations.

Let’s start with the competition during the sixth generation. The Sega Dreamcast was a mix of bad timing, bug-filled launch titles, lack of true PS-like third-party support, and gamers still not forgiving Sega for the Sega Saturn fiasco. The Dreamcast did have plenty of great games, especially in the sports and fighting genres. However, it just couldn’t prove that it was the beginning of a new era, instead looking like a system that was mingling with the fleeting N64 and Playstation. Gamers collectively made the decision to bypass the first system of the new era and instead wait on Sony’s successor.

The XBox didn’t have much of an identity outside of being the ultimate system for FPS fans. Up until 1998’s surprise-surprise hit Goldeneye 007 we didn’t know Americans were ready to embrace the FPS genre in anything other than PC. So with Halo, the Green Machine became the go-to system for action shooters. 7 of the 15 best-selling XBox games were action/shooters, with the two Halo games occupying the top spot and underrated gem Splinter Cell emerging in third place. But of course, with a lack of variety you can’t really grab much of an audience. The Japanese rejected the XBox entirely, also adding to its lackluster sales. The ONLY reason XBox even continued was because Microsoft can afford to be patient, and because Halo showed the world that the XBox brand has a shot at making good money. Outselling Nintendo was also a positive sign.

Which leads us to the Nintendo Gamecube: a mess. Third-party companies were flying away from the Nintendo brand as the House of Mario continued to refuse to abide by the technology being used and stuck with their decision to use smaller disks to make games while simultaneously not put any effort in trying to go online. These two things, plus the lack of backwards-compatibility that benefited the PS2 greatly propelled it to lackluster launch sales, and this bad stench would carry over through the remainder of the generation. Gamecube’s arsenal of cancelled and delayed games also made it easier for Sony to flourish. The final nail on the coffin was when Twilight Princess was getting delayed time and time again while Capcom betrayed Nintendo and sent Resident Evil 4 and Viewtiful Joe to PS2.

PS2’s hardware was definitely the biggest reason why Sony handedly won the generation. It was backwards-compatible, which allowed PS1 owners to easily make the transition and bring their lineup of purchased games to the next generation. So even though PS2 didn’t have many great games to start, you at least were able to keep your games from the past. Then there’s the DVD player, which made the PS2 arguably the first console to double as a sort of entertainment hardware. The DVD boom occurred at around that point, which gave the PS2 even more value than expected. Sony’s decision to use CD disks in 1994 is paying off with interest come 2000.






Third-party support for Sony was at its absolute peak here in the sixth generation. Feeding off the PS1 success, third-party companies wasted no time announcing their allegiance to the PS2 (and in most instances, ONLY the PS2) and gave the system some of the best games in the 2000s. Sony’s first-party lineup was nowhere near as good as the latter systems (especially PS3) but franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Madden, Metal Gear Solid, SOCOM, Need for Speed, and Final Fantasy eased the pain of lack of games coming directly from Sony. And besides, Gran Turismo was all Sony really needed to do (26 million sold between two games). Sony had popular franchises for Japan (Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior), England (Pro Evolution Soccer, Grand Theft Auto), and America (Medal of Honor, Grand Theft Auto, Tony Hawk, Kingdom Hearts).

Better hardware (despite weaker specs and slow online start), much better lineup of games (even though in my eyes Gamecube owned the top game of the sixth generation with Metroid Prime), much more games to choose from, backwards-compatibility, and better value. Anything else? Well, there is one more thing: the Playstation 3’s disastrous launch.

The PS3 looked ugly, it looked big, and it was incredibly expensive. It had a terrible launch marred with controversy over the long lines that ended in disappointment as all the stores wound up getting less copies than promised. Why shell out the $600 to get a new system showing minimal promise when you still have a working PS2 that technically has access to over 800 titles? So with that, the PS2 continued to sell. It was still the best Sony option out there, above the clunky PSP and the still-expensive-and-underperforming PS3. With that, the PS2 was able to continue its record-setting hardware sales. 7 years after its launch, it still managed to release a game that sold 5 million copies (Guitar Hero III).

The PS2 is a type of success that cannot ever be duplicated. No system in the near future will have the overpowering third-party advantage that Sony enjoyed in the early 2000s, which is required to create such sales havoc. The Nintendo Wii’s ridiculous success was marred because it simply ran out of games to deliver to consumers after it peaked at around 2008-2009. Third-party had piggybacked on Wii’s success but jumped ship when the jig was up and the hardware limitations were beginning to become more obvious. First-party games can only take you so far; just ask the first-party heavy Nintendo 64 (tons of masterpiece games, but really lacked on software options overall).

You can duplicate the PS2 formula, you can imitate the controller (probably best controller ever), the design, the marketing campaign, and its method of pricing. But, you won’t ever see the big lead PS2 had on its competition (Combine Dreamcast, Gamecube, and XBox hardware sales and it will still be 100 million short) ever again. When the NES pulled off its 85% market share, which was a near monopoly Nintendo was pulling back then. But under a fair(er) playing field, we won’t see a winner like PS2. The market is tighter than ever, and there are less third-party companies willing to stick to just one system. The Playstation 2 was a special, special system, and would pave the path that the modern gaming industry is trailblazing today.



Happy Birthday PS2, lots of great memories indeed.




Source of my data