Konami may be the most notorious company when it comes to toxic work environments and how that affects their products. There have been many different sources to speak out against Konami and how they treat their employees, but the most damning in recent times would be an article from Nikkei.com. The article details how there are cameras placed everywhere to monitor everyone at any given time. How thorough they are to check how long everyone is on their lunch break, and those that take too long are publicly shamed. Only employees that work sales or PR are allowed their own email addresses, everyone else's changes periodically. They don't care much for getting back to employees who bring up issues, and employees that they find "useless" are shuffled around, sometimes even right out of game development and right into areas like janitorial positions. Nothing about this atmosphere screams creative, supportive or even conducive to a healthy work environment.
The company tends to come off vindictive and out for revenge against anyone who even speaks with constructive criticism of the Konami. They also tend to care more about profit than any artistic merit. These two aspects are shown best in their discarding of Metal Gear Solid (MGS) creator Hideo Kojima. Konami has had two very successful franchises over the years, MGS, and Silent Hill which hasn't been successful in years (which we'll get to in a moment). Konami wanted to turn straw into gold and expected to make a lot of money while spending very little. During this time, Kojima made MGS5 for $80 Million, and Konami took it as an opportunity to get rid of Kojima for good, even taking his name off of the box of MGS5 when it launched. Konami would prove that Kojima was a huge part if why those games sold well when they tried to make their own MGS game: Metal Gear Survive, and it did horribly financially and critically. They also canceled the Silent Hill game Kojima was working on with Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. Not only did they lose all the money that went into production for that game, but Kojima started his own studio and is set to release his own game with Noramn Reedus: Death Stranding, actually creating competition for any game Konami is set to release in the future.
In severing their link to Kojima, they not only destroyed their last successful franchise, but also destroyed an attempt to revive a franchise that hasn't even been used in years. Silent Hill hasn't been a hit since Silent Hill 2, and it's because of Konami. For a more in depth history of Silent Hill and why 3 was a departure from what made the game successful, watch the linked video below. In short, 1 and 2 were successful because Konami took a bunch of developers who didn't fit in with any of the production groups on staff, and left them alone to make a Resident Evil clone. Because these people were so different and isolated in the company, they turned what would have been an ok knock off into something truly unique. They wanted to continue innovating and doing what made 1 and 2 so good, but Konami stepped in and told them they knew what the fans wanted, and got more involved with the development, much to the teams dismay. Of course 3 sold only about half as well as the other 2 Silent Hill games, and Konami blamed the developers, even though the only thing that had changed was Konami's involvement in the first place. 4 was already in development when 3 flopped so there was no time to fix anything and 4 also flopped. Konami shut the team down and outsourced the franchise ever since, never coming close to 1 and 2's success.
Konami can be seen single-handedly destroying their two biggest franchises due to greed and mistrust in their very talented developers. They almost exclusively make money off of real world gambling machines now, and refuse to change. Konami's mindset of money first, questions later has destroyed their video game legacy, made the lives of those working for them worse, and left a bitter taste in many people's mouth. If they want to turn things around they would have to start with themselves, and ask what kind of culture they want to create.
The Problem with Silent Hill 3: The Fall of Team Silent
Scathing Konami Report Alleges Cruel and Unusual Employee Practices
Company Mindset and Culture Assignment - Kortney Menefee
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