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NEWS: Nikkei Reports on Konami's Restructuring, Dissolution of Kojima Productions

I'm curious about the randomized emails. I suppose I can see where that might help prevent leaks, but it also seems like a lot of effort and comes off as a bit paranoid.

I wonder if Hideo Kojima will end up quiting and taking his next project to Kickstarter? After the major success of Shenmu 3, I'm sure that will become more common.

In contrast to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which Nikkei reports had a budget exceeding 10 billion yen (about US$80 million)

I'd rather see those people get heck out of there. Those are terrible working conditions. If their being abused like that, they have talents, they should try go some where else or do something other working for micromanaging self-destructive company than Konami.

I can see why Naoki Maeda, the creator of Dance Dance Revolution left the company and started making music games for Capcom. CROSSXBEATS seems to me to be some sort of revenge project considering that the concept and a few of the songs in the game make direct stabs at Konami.

Kind of looks 3rd Party Japanese developers just want to do away with the idea of competition altogether and essentially hand Bandai Namco Entertainment and Square Enix the reigns since they're the only ones in that category that seem to be doing well lately and making smart business moves, particularly the former that never stopped while the latter has recently started to again under new management. It kind of puts things into perspective when the greatest crime the former seems to have inflicted on the public is waifu denial and too many DLC options. The latter had a really bad decade under Yoichi Wada but seems to have started the recovery well.

Seriously though anytime I hear news about a classic Japanese developer nowadays aside from those two it always seems to be bad news be it the death of a great guy like Iwata or some story about how they shot themselves and their best creative talents in the foot.

Former game creators who are no longer seen as useful have been reassigned to other jobs such as security guard, janitor, and mechanical work on pachi-slot machines. Several employees were shuffled around after pressing "like" on a former employee's Facebook post about leaving the company.

The problem there is that unless another company specifically hires them (like with Gunpei Yokoi), they have to start from the bottom. Such is the life of a Japanese salaryman. It's why these creators are more likely to start their own companies than to find another one to join up with.

That being said, the time is right for an exodus to such a start-up. Problem is that I don't think there are any that's run by a Konami alumnus right now.