Konami has ceased all triple-A console game production on everything but Pro Evolution Soccer and there are currently no plans for a big new Metal Gear game, while worldwide technology directr Julien Merceron has left the company. That's according to a pair of reports on French site Gameblog. Eurogamer understands both reports to be true.

Gameblog wrote yesterday that Merceron was apparently unhappy with Konami's transition away from the console market towards mobile games.

Beyond Metal Gear Online - the separate online component to Metal Gear Solid 5 that is currently being finished - and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016, Konami has a blank triple-A slate. It does however have the licence to the football tournament Euro 2016, so we'd expect it to make use of that.

Problems at Konami were highlighted earlier in the year when Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima left the company and his Kojima Productions studio was dissolved. He had reportedly fallen out with Konami's big bosses who refused to bankroll his long and lavish productions any longer. Metal Gear Solid 5 reportedly cost $80m to make. Any new Metal Gear Solid game Konami produces will presumably be made without Kojima involved.

Further problems at Konami were highlighted when respected financial Japanese newspaper Nikkei ran an article about a deteriorating company culture at Konami's game division. Employees "deemed useless" were apparently given menial and degrading tasks, and communication with outsiders was restricted and lunch breaks monitored.

What comes next for Konami, and for Kojima, we'll have to wait and see.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-18-konami-ceases-triple-a-console-production-on-all-but-pes-report

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1113985

Oh

Konami appears to be actively trying to fuck itself over.

This is what I was afraid of: Konami doing nothing with the IP.

At this point Kojima should just pull a Yookalaylee and make a spiritual successor to Metal Gear.

Hard Cog
Solid Mechanism
Iron Lever

Starring Ridgid and Fluid Serpent.

Destroy the final weapon... Soft Mechanism.

big bosses
What you did there, I saw it.

Lol, Lemon.

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I just want Metal Gear to be finished -- I want the loose ends to be severed. I don't think that's too much to ask. Especially since that's what we were promised.

I'd also like remakes but they don't need Kojima for that.

After that I'd love to see Kojima try his hand at a Red Dead Redemption-style Spaghetti Western cowboy game.

They said they were done making AAA games sans PES, that doesn't mean they won't use their IPs.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, that means they're done using the IP well.

I, for one, hope that a MGSV comic will be outsourced to finish out the story.

Yeah, and if we're lucky, full voice acting. Like the ones they made for MGS/MGS2 in the Legacy Collection.

You're thinking too optimistically.

Yeah, I kind of set myself up for disappointment on the regular. I don't know why I keep thinking Konami has a brain.

Also as MGS fans we have to band together and not buy anything MGS related post-MGSV content unless it's console-based.

That's our obligation, as Diamond Dogs.

I dint think anybody plans on buying the MGS mobile games they'll put out, or buying
pachinko machines for our homes.

I dint think anybody plans on buying the MGS mobile games they'll put out, or buying
pachinko machines for our homes.

I'm sure they'll try to entice us with half-decent story driven mobile games. Or something.

I don't know, it was more a precaution than anything else.

A good lesson to remember is that a blind optimist is usually set up for disappointment.

Which is funny because I actually describe myself as a philosophical pessimist.

Even so, that's $40M down the drain.

I wager a lot of that is the production of the Fox Engine, though, which is always pricey.

And really, it's their fault for wasting their own money if they're not even going to utilise their investment in the future (I.E. mobile games).

Called it.