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Konami Social Media Manager responds to fan concerns

On Reddit, Konami Social Media Manager Benjamin Kinney addressed some concerns by fans regarding the future of the series and the company as a whole, as well as addressing the backlash caused by Kojima’s departure and the recently announced Metal Gear pachislot machine.

First, in a reddit thread about the future of the Metal Gear subreddit in light of recent events, he posted the following:

Hello! Ben via Konami Social (Verified on /r/MGO, but just in case – Potato Verification of my messy desk )

Just wanna jump in an say two things:

A) There is a great community, unique content and a variety fantastic people on this sub. We respect that you are/get salty about the way things have gone at points, it goes with the territory, but we still love & respect this community. Things have not always gone as smooth as we would like, but we are always doing our best to assemble your views (good, bad and ugly) and present them.

B) The above post is a great discussion starter and /u/KJPDev [Robert Peeler] and I will continue to read your thoughts and feedback. As has been publicly said, Konami is committed to the MGS franchise and not just one off examples of niche products. Robert is an active advocate for the brand and does a great job representing you at the table when there are discussions.

Furthermore, responding to someone who stated that he has no hope for the future of the Metal Gear series (and other Konami franchises):

Within the industry, many projects are slow burns, slow starts or even none starts. While I understand your frustrations/desires (as a long time Castlevania fan i totally want more) after LOS2, Konami needs to take the time necessary to review the IP and find a good fit. METAL GEAR is important to a lot of people here and as has been stated publicly, will be supported in the future in a console market.

It can be hard as fans. One day I hope we may earn you back and surprise you. Hope that helps and does not sting.

Someone also suggested that Ben would hold an Ask me Anything session on reddit (where users can ask questions to a specific person), to which he responded that there are always restrictions to what a community manager can say:

Working in Social/PR/Marketing is a fine balance. We want to interact, but we also cannot run around spoiling secrets or game announcements willy nilly. That is not even Konami, that is the Industry as a whole. […] There are always going to be legal/contract/etc restrictions on what any employee anywhere can say. That is just life! But, I and u/KJPDev have worked in and around the industry a fair amount of time, so we could provide some insights into the industry…maybe.

Specifically talking about the Metal Gear pachislot machine, he had the following to say:

Hello! In the interest of our continued efforts to be more involved with you all, there are a few things you should know/understand about this:

A) These products / licenses take years of approval and development on their own.

B) This product is local to Japan.

C) This product does not impact the video game / console development cycle which also takes years (If any of you know anyone who has access to IDG or Superdata, there are some great very recent reports on the entire console market and dev cycle)

D) Hey, seriously, the graphics look great. And we (social/PR) report actively your expressed interest in remakes and updates.

There are some seriously scary / dangerous comments on here, on YouTube and on metalgearinformer. Just in case, while there is plenty to be mad about, if you are considering self harm or other harm, there are people who can help you. We love your passion, but dont hurt yourself or others over a trailer.

Answering some more questions on a HD collection for PS4 (e), adding co-op to MGSV (f) and the future in general (g):

e) First party like MS and Sony are doing a lot of work to make games easier to port. So you never know there. Sometimes, like Castlevania SotN the approvals and turn around was very quick because we had direct support from microsoft. This applies to all retro titles and is something that many publishers are looking at. It is also one of the reasons you see Microsoft moving forward with there “super compatible” business model they announced at E3.

f) Co-Op game play is often requested and many of us enjoyed Peacewalker, so that feature has been noted and reported as a suggestion for future content.

g) Hah, well next year is 30th anniversary, my crystal ball is broken, but I will go shake the 8 ball and get back to you 🙂

Edit: 8 Ball said future unclear, check back in a few months. Huh.

About Konami’s commitment to AAA game development:

Hello! Bit of a broken record here, but Konami has already stated numerous times we are committed to AAA titles and games. This journalism / off the cuff interview, is not typically how any company would announce a new title or discuss internal projects or plans. But it got you all to click and read and get riled up and me to respond, so that is a thing.

We were at E3 talking about PES and FOX because that is literally why were were there. No Comment just means exactly that.

Also, as has been noted elsewhere, other branded products and projects are just that, other divisions and have often been in production or development for years on their own with long standing history and their own teams.

About Kojima:

Within our posts, tweets, and social content, we have only respect for the work and legacy of Metal Gear and Kojima-san. Our “thank you” to him on launch day via Twitter was one of the highest engagements we have seen. The community and its frustrations are not something we take lightly. We all have friends and colleagues who worked on MGS, some of us are in the credits. We have our pride as well. We love the fans, the art, the passion good and bad.

Source: KonamiUSSocial on Reddit

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