Report: Internal Konami Issues Only Getting Worse - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 August 2015 / 4,478 Views
A report released by Nikkei, and translated by Kotaku, paints a very bleak picture of events at Konami. In short, the issues that have leaked to the press regarding Kojima are in fact worse than has been reported until now and the impact on the company as a whole has been grave.
Here is a rundown of the report's key revelations:
- Kojima Productions has been renamed Number 8 Production Department.
- Computers in this department are no longer connected to the internet and can only send messages internally.
- Employees who take lunch breaks are monitored through the use of time cards. If any take a break that is considered too long then they are publicly named and shamed.
- Only employees that deal with people outside the company and PR have their own Konami e-mail addresses. Everyone else has a randomized email address that is changed every few months.
- There are cameras in the corridors that are used to monitor the activity of Konami employees.
- Any employee who liked the Facebook post of Kojima leaving the company have had their jobs reshuffled within Konami.
- Kojima's posts on Facebook are currently being monitored.
- Konami developers who aren't seen as useful have been given low-grade jobs as security guards, cleaning staff, or pachi-slot machine factory workers.
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Sounds like a horrible place to work.
I just pray that MGSV holds you before Konami crashes.
Holy crap, this sounds like a scifi movie where peoples lives are monitered and everything is systematic.
Konami just seems to be on a downwards spiral right now. There´s just too many things that makes you think the company is owned by a bunch of Dictators.
A classic case of biting the hand that feeds. They're going to regret killing their biggest IP. And believe me, without Kojima... MGS IS dead.
Why is Konami trying so hard to screw themselves?
To be fair, we don't really know how bad they were slacking. I mean they are monitoring lunch breaks...what were they taking 2 hours? lol Watching pron and youtube instead of developing their game? IDK, but the development must have been way behind or money squandered. I don't blame Konami without knowing all the facts...then again I never liked Metal Gear games. I just know that they need to sell a lot of units to justify the development costs so they might not be complete villains. Definitely going overboard on the damage control with the facebook likes though. "Konami developers who aren't seen as useful have been given low-grade jobs as security guards, cleaning staff, or pachi-slot machine factory workers." This is what most AAA game developers deserve these days...looking at you Bungie, Respawn, Infinity Ward.
Why am I not surprised...
