Konami Will Remain in Gamedev, Clarifying a Confusing Announcement
Konami's brief announcement about restructuring sparked a storm on the Internet. The Japanese company will continue to develop video games, and info of studios getting shut down was quickly denied.
- Konami announced a restructuring of their video game devteams;
- Shortly after the announcement, gamers thought that this meant the company pulling out from gamedev;
- For this reason, the Japanese company issued a statement in which it denied such information.
Contrary to what half the internet wrote about yesterday, Konami is not shutting down its video game division. The restructuring of internal development teams, announced in a report to investors, has stirred a lot of confusion in the industry.
For some time now, Japanese developers have been undergoing restructuring so as not to fall behind the ever-changing video game market. A prime example of this is both Square Enix and SEGA. Both companies have decided to centralize development teams and create several larger divisions out of a dozen or so smaller ones so that they can work better together.
Konami is another company from Japan that has decided to take this step. However, it was informed in an announcement to investors, which made most players think that the move was a liquidation of development studios alltogether. The net was in an uproar, which forced the release of a statement indicating that it was a restructuring after all.
Of course, such a reaction from the community did not come from nothing. For several years Konami has been a shadow of the publisher it used to be when it released hit after hit. Currently, the priority of the Japanese company is pachinko machines and mobile games. Classic games for consoles and PC have been significantly marginalized. Judging by the planned moves, this will not change soon.
