Konami denies stopping work on its main franchises

Japanese publisher and developer Konami has denied previous reports that the company has halted development on its major PC and console franchises. A Konami representative reports this to a customer.

The rep tells a customer that he can “promise we won’t leave Metal Gear or anything like that. I know a few blogs claim that, but I’m not sure where they get that from.” The representative refers to a Gameblog.fr publication that wrote on September 18 that Konami was no longer working on anything other than the development of Metal Gear Online and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016. That based the blog on anonymous sources. “We’re definitely still working on franchises like Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, PES and the rest,” the Konami representative continued.

The CEO of Konami told Japan’s Nikkei Trendy Net in May that the company will use mobile games as its main platform in the future. Based on these new statements, Konami appears to be planning to expand to mobile without abandoning its existing platforms and franchises.

In March of this year, Konami posted job openings to recruit developers for future Metal Gear games. However, Gameblog.fr sources report that no one has been hired to fill those positions. Konami has been in the news with some regularity lately. For example, there are several signals that point to the departure of Metal Gear director Hideo Kojima from the company. The new Silent Hill game, on which the PS4 game PT, or Playable Teaser is based, will also not be completed, Konami confirmed in April.

However, a game very similar to PT was posted to Kickstarter on September 21. Like PT and the canceled Silent Hills, horror game Allison Road is set in an abandoned house and the protagonist is a man with amnesia who wakes up alone in his own house. It’s up to him to find out what happened to him and his family while also outrunning “Lily” and other paranormal creatures. The game is intended for Windows with support for Oculus VR, but has stretch goals for OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Behind the game is development studio Lilith Ltd, which was founded in 2015.