https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/administration/marketing/news/newsid=2551744.html
It was just announced that Konami will be ending their decade-long relationship with UEFA. Having the UEFA license was one of the cornerstones of their yearly Pro Evolution Soccer. Having the UEFA license was one of the few things PES had over their rivals, EA's FIFA.
“The UEFA Champions League licence has given us a platform to create unique experiences and provide football fans from all over the world with an opportunity to enjoy this competition first-hand,” said Jonas Lygaard, senior director of brand and business development for Konami Digital Entertainment B.V., in the announcement. “This year, however, we will shift our focus into other areas. We will continue to explore alternative ways UEFA and Konami can continue to work together, as our relationship remains strong.”
Why this is relevant to us? Because it's one more evidence - and by far the strongest so far - that the official story is true, and Konami is indeed stepping out of AAA gaming in favor of other ventures, like Pachinko machines. Konami is behaving exactly as one would expect them to behave if they truly were gearing up to abandon (or drastically diminish) AAA gaming. And there is no possibility of them doing this just as a red herring, as it would be absolutely insane - PES is their most profitable franchise by a significant margin. In fact, it was the one franchise that was expected to survive the AAA purge (it was the one that has been unaffected so far, at least). Abandoning the UEFA partnership means that FIFA will almost certainly grab it, which will definetly cement FIFA as the premier football game in the world. It is not an advantage that Konami would give up willingly, unless they truly believed they wouldn't need it anymore, such as due to changing their target marketing.
I believe that, with this development, the possibility of Konami being involved in the ruse - an hypothesis that never made much sense to begin with due to the risks and PR hits they took for the sake of this possible ruse - is effectively dead. There is 0 chance that Konami would abandon something as profitable as PES but still keep MGS as the focal point of their company.
Does this mean everything is over? Not necessarily. Archillect's recent involvement with this whole story is very, very weird, and I believe it is worth paying attention too (but not consider it 100% involved, at least not yet).
Considering Norma Reedus' recent disclosure of the fact that DS will have "social media elements", I do believe there is a very real possibility of some sort of ARG going on right now or starting in the near-future. I believe the community's efforts will be much more well-spent focusing on this more likely possibility than insisting in a gigantic conspiracy theory that never made much sense to begin with, and now makes even less so.
"But Henshin, most of Archillect's stuff so far references PT, not DS".
I absolutely agree - the two weirdest and more on-the-nose tweets so far - the one with the 204863 sequence and the GIF with the clock stuck at 11:59 - are PT-related, not DS-related. However, it is important to keep in mind that, for all intents and purposes, Death Stranding is the realization of the artistic vision that brought us P.T. It is the child of the collaboration between Kojima, Del Toro and, possibly, Jujin Ito (whose collaboration is still not confirmed, but it's far from being an impossibility), featuring Norman Reedus as well. And, while Konami owns PT and not Kojima, there is a lot of leeway on how much someone can reference elements from another work. Kojima definetly can't use the PT brand, logo and etc, but he probably would be able to safely use fringe elements from PT (like the 204863 sequence and the clock) on a social media ARG. And, most importantly: Even if legally speaking he could not, this would only matter if Konami would be willing to take him to court over this usage - which would involve a lot of money and a lot of time. Considering Konami is distancing themselves from gaming and thus wouldn't care, on top of the legal expenses and time waste, I can see Kojima being confident enough to use these fringe connections in a minor way (social media marketing campaign, instead of actually featuring them in the game). I sure as hell would bet my money on Konami not suing and Kojima being able to get away with a lot of things that legally speaking he should not.
So, tl;dr: Konami being involved in the ruse never made sense and now it makes even less so since the end of this partnership signals that the official story (Konami leaving gaming) was true. However, under the recent Archillect developments and Reedus's declarations, it is possible that an Death Stranding ARG could be underway or soon to come. I honestly believe that focusing the community's efforts on this possible ARG would be far more productive for the community as a whole (not to mention that it would save a lot of disappointment down the line), instead of trying to uncover a conspiracy that simply isn't there.
Sorry for the lenghty read and thank you for those that read it in full. I hope this leads to productive and enjoyable discussion.
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