Bye Konami

With all the trouble surrounding Hideo Kojima's future with Konami, his name and studio being taken off his games, the cancellation of Silent Hills, and Konami taking itself off the New York Stock Exchange. We knew something was coming, now we do.

  
According to Konami's CEO Hideki Hayakawa the company is pulling away from AAA console gaming and focusing on mobile gaming. Going as far to say mobile is the "future" of gaming. I'm guessing we can look forward to "Silent Hill: Finger Danger" in their future.

Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies, We hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too

So it seems that Konami is not only leaving console gaming behind but it is keeping the kids... I mean IPs. So looks like not only is Metal Gear Solid 5 the last Kojima MGS but could also be the last "proper" MGS game. What's unknown is if Konami is stepping away from development and/or publishing of console game entirely. Konami's profits from mobile is primarily from Japan which also has a strong handheld focus, will we still see games for handheld devices?

Some "fans" are calling for a boycott of Metal Gear Solid 5 as a way of "punishing" Konami for leaving AAA gaming but this would only prove them right and hurt Kojima and his team for all their hard work. If people want Konami to make "proper" games then MGS5 has to be a huge success to lure them back in. (which explains all these links!)

Abe's Take
Well its hard to see an legend of gaming fade away from something the helped create and to see their brilliant IP's put though the "mobile ringer" but looking at finances they earn more in mobile gaming and slot machines (separately) than they do from AAA gaming, so it's understandable why Konami make mobile their "center"