According to economic Japanese newspaper, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), developer and publisher, Konami, may be crossing a line when it comes to corporate culture. The newspaper reports that the developer and publisher of games such as Metal Gear, PES, and the Silent Hill franchises have slowly worsened the environment and attitude towards its console developers over the previous five years.
The initial major change was triggered by 2010’s release of Dragon Collection, a popular online title which rolled out on the GREE Japanese social network. The game, developed in-house at Konami, was hugely successful on mobile platforms, and even saw its own manga and anime adaption over the following years. After its success, it is reported that a large focus was moved to mobile and social games, away from the more expensive, and time consuming fully fledged console titles. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s production costs have reportedly reached over $80 million, which shows why Konami may have opted for a different market.
While a change in focus for a company is common practice, the handling of smaller divisions at Konami is what has brought this to the attention of the public.
Kojima Productions, a subsidiary of Konami, is led by Hideo Kojima, a writer, designer and producer who is a key figure in Metal Gear development. After many controversies have arisen before, the following reports are not only strange, but also worrying. Nikkei reports that the office conditions at Konami have been affected by the shift in focus, and beginning to drive employees away from the company.
Kojima Productions has reportedly been renamed to “Number 8 Production Department” internally, and have no access to the internet. Instead, the team must communicate over the company’s intranet, which restricts email communication to those internally at Konami. This lines up with previous statements from Konami PR, suggesting that earlier claims regarding this matter may be true. When asked about restricted internet and email access last March, Konami PR confirmed that “It’s true that during the organizational change, there were things that were revised” this ensured that employees gave “undivided attention to development” within working hours.
To add to this confusion, those in the company who do have internet access usually do not receive permanent email addresses. Each employee is given an email address which consists of a string of characters, and a string of numbers, which changes regularly. (e.g. [email protected]) This is supposedly used to prevent headhunting, however also prevents reliable contact with external sources.
Employees are also being monitored via cameras and time cards, to ensure they maximise their work efficiency. These cameras have been installed across the building, to ensure that these employees are working to their full potential. Time cards must also be used for lunch breaks, therefore the company can track how long employees are away from their work stations. If they are spending too long on breaks, they will be announced within the company.
Those who aren’t performing up to scratch, or aren’t currently being useful are reassigned, and given smaller, tedious jobs until a new opportunity arises. Some previous demotions have seen empolyees taking security guard shifts, cleaning gym equipment and working in pachi-slot machine factories. Even employees with a long history at the company are subject to this treatment.
Nikkei has also stated that when an employee left the company, he made an announcement on Facebook. Many of his colleagues liked this post, however Konami actively tracked the history of likes over the following weeks. Anyone who worked at Konami who liked the post was noted, and had their position altered.
If these claims are true, it is now obvious that Konami has no plans to continue developing a large library of games for the console market. While only one source has provided this information, previous allegations from different outlets have suggested similar actions internally. This is another of many supposed incidents between Konami, and console development, which will likely come to light after the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
For more updates on this story, stay tuned to ICXM.
Matt was a regular ICXM contributor in 2015, publishing 110 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming. They post on X as @RTEnvi.