Konami – MMO Fallout

Konami this week silently renewed its trademarks for Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid in Europe and the press is already speculating on what this could mean: A Playstation Classic lineup? Remakes? Remasters? A surprise announcement at the game awards? Don’t hold your breath.

This story comes up whenever a developer is found to renew trademarks in some territory and while the speculation will certainly bring in views and thus ad revenue, the answer is rarely newsworthy. Right now the only upcoming Metal Gear related release that the public is aware of is Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation Classic. Apart from that, all is silent over at the smouldering remains of Kojima Productions.

That said, the fact that Konami is renewing the Metal Gear trademarks is nothing to get prematurely excited about. Outside of defunct developers, this process is done essentially on an automated basis or by third parties in order to ensure that said trademarks don’t lapse. Nintendo still owns trademarks for games dating back to the arcades and NES games from the 80’s that they have no intention of ever selling or developing sequels for, yet don’t want the trademark to lapse.

Konami may never develop another Metal Gear Solid game again, but they aren’t going to let the trademark expire because that means other parties could use it, and if there’s one thing that game developers hate it’s other people making use of their unwanted property.

Chaturday: Gamer Grudges And The Horse Konami Road In On

Here at MMO Fallout, I often get asked a very simple question about game journalists, and whether or not members of this profession intentionally seek contrarian positions in order to goad people they already know don’t like them into responding, thus adding to their growing cache of victim bucks? You’d think so, given the current climate, but from an insider perspective I can say that the answer is a surprising yes.

Of course they do, and for two simple reasons: First, outrage bait gets clicks and clicks get ad revenue. I keep a close eye on what stories get the biggest hits on MMO Fallout, and I can tell you it certainly isn’t the ones with a happy ending. The lowest Crowdfunding Fraudster piece has more hits than any positive coverage on this website, but thankfully we aren’t supported by advertising and thus how many hits a story gets has almost zero effect on the tone that further coverage takes.

The second is that this industry doesn’t exactly pay well, business and landlords don’t accept victim bucks as a currency, and frankly if you’re the kind of person who couldn’t get into a “real journalism” (I’m parsing the words of others) for a lack of integrity or ability to conduct real investigations, then parsing Twitter and Google for the top search trends and penning an article about how you’re wrong for liking that thing or for not liking that other thing, in the hopes that those people share your piece to their friends so they can read it and talk about how angry they are, it’s pretty much all you’ve got. I’m not saying these people exist, but if they did then this probably sums up their motivations.

It’s easy to become disillusioned when you’re forced to write for an industry that you’re not really interested in, don’t know much about, and for an audience that you don’t really relate to. God gamers suck.

Oh did I say that out loud?

But we’re here today to talk about Konami, an entity so reviled in the gaming community that they make Bobby Kotick and Bill Roper look like venerated saints. If any company truly deserves being demonized by the public, it’s the company whose ethical crimes extend outside of “they made a game I didn’t like and filled it with microtransactions.” We’re talking about the Konami, who routinely not only blacklists former employees from the gaming industry but allegedly attempts to stop them from getting jobs in other industries as well.

Let’s also not forget the controversy between Konami and Hideo Kojima, which ultimately led to Konami utilizing its lawyers to prevent Kojima from accepting an award at a game show, the same year that they stripped Kojima’s name from Metal Gear Solid.

We can also have a whole conversation about Konami abandoning its properties, but ultimately the company seems determined to leave the gaming industry behind and frankly the only gripe that many gamers have with this notion is that this might mean the end of beloved franchises like Castlevania and Silent Hill. Konami obviously won’t suffer from this move, their gaming side has been small potatoes compared to their pachinko machines for quite some time.

So yes, there is a community of gamers that will never buy anything that is ever produced with Konami’s name. Does it make them entitled? Not exactly. Are they justified in their reasoning? That’s subjective to the person. Are they going to get attacked and vilified for it? You bet your sweet bippy they will.

Look around the internet blogosphere and you’ll see articles talking about how those nasty entitled gamers aren’t even giving Konami a chance. Given the recent controversy and backlash surrounding predatory microtransactions in games, you may also notice a trend about how reasonable and functional it is that Konami is making Survive online-always even for single player and how generous it is for them to introduce microtransactions for those people who have jobs and thus more money than time (aka not-basement dwelling nerds).

Until of course Konami unveils a scantily clad female character for Survive, in which case the game designers are going to get crucified by the press.

Otherwise I have no opinion on the matter.

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