Konami To “Aggressively Pursue” Mobile Gaming

Konami will focus on mobile gaming in the future, an executive for the publisher has said.

In an interview with Japanese site Nikkei Trendy Net (translated via NeoGaf), Konami’s CEO Hideki Hayakawa said that “Mobile is where the future of gaming lies,” and that the publisher will “aggressively pursue” mobile development for future titles.

While Hayakawa stopped short of saying that the publisher plans to abandon console and PC game development entirely, he did say that the company is also exploring how it can move traditional series’ such as Metal Gear Solid onto mobile platforms for future releases.

“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,” Hayakawa told the site. “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.”

“With multiplatform games, there’s really no point in dividing the market into categories anymore. Mobiles will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world,” he continued.

Konami has recently found itself the center of controversy surrounding its removal of Hideo Kojima’s name from all marketing material associated with Metal Gear Solid V, a move which was followed by reports that Kojima Productions staff had seen their access to phone, email and internet restricted.

While Konami and Kojima both say that the legendary director will continue to promote MGSV up to and beyond release, Kojima’s other project Silent Hills wasn’t so lucky, being cancelled by Konami recently. The publisher also recently de-listed itself from the New York Stock Exchange, though that move was announced to have been a simple cost-saving measure.

Chris Corbett recently explored the possibility of a mobile-only future for Konami in a recent article for Continue Play. While Chris’ article was speculation on his part at the time, with this latest news it appears that he may have been on to something.

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Dale Morgan

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When Dale isn't crying over his keyboard about his never-ending workload, he's playing games - lots of them. Dale has a particular love for RPGs, Roguelikes and Metroidvanias.