Remember When They Almost Stopped Making Games?
Okay, so it was mostly a major shift towards Pachinko machines, but still. Things weren’t looking so hot for Konami at one point in the very recent past. Now, with the release of their most recent financial report, it looks like Konami games are big business again.
In particular, Pro Evolution Soccer is doing great things for the company. Well, PES loot boxes have been doing great things. Yes, it turns out that loot boxes and mobile tie-ins have been giving Konami games a serious edge. The company’s profits went up by 17% in a single year! That’s not great news for anyone sick of predatory business practices in video games.
Although Konami has been releasing actual games for the last couple of years, their gambling arm has still been flexing mightily. Profits in the ‘Amusements’ section have been pretty brisk, so don’t expect that to go away any time soon. The one real silver lining here is that maybe they’ll start making more games in the future? Even though the talent (Kojima and Igarashi) associated with their most critically acclaimed franchises has moved on, maybe they can still pull it off? Or maybe it’s just gambling and gambling-adjacent enterprises for ever more.