Konami...Just Konami...

Earlier today, Konami revealed a new trailer for their newest Metal Gear Solid game, a pachinko machine with backdrop of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as the theme for it. My only response for this is: why? Why, Konami? The visuals look gorgeous. Each of the character models has been stunningly recreated using the FOX engine and it all opens up with the gorgeous view of the climactic battle between The Boss and the man who would later become Big Boss. But all of these wonderful visuals are wasted to what amounts to nothing more than a paltry gambling machine. And why, I ask again? So Konami can make a quick buck while ruining the legacies of all of their once great franchises? I've heard an argument state that the whole idea of westerners getting angry about Konami changing their focus from being about video games to being about pachinko is out of control and it shouldn't be something that we concern ourselves with. However, what these people fail to understand is, gaming history is being lost here. Several titles under the Konami name such as Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher, Zone of the Enders, Goemon, Boktai, Castlevania, Silent Hill, and Suikoden are at risk of being lost forever due to Konami's sudden and jarring shift over to the world of pachinko. And the problem here isn't the fact that Konami wants to produce pachinko machines, but rather that they want to produce pachinko machines while burying any and all traces of their past as game developers. Sure, they like to pretend that they're paying homage to titles of previous years, but with the way the pachinko machines are marketed, such as focusing on a sultry succubus' breasts for the Castlevania machine or the loud noises and bright colors produced by the Silent Hill machine, they end up appealing to the lowest common denominator.

But do you want to know what the wort part is? Konami is pretty much pushing themselves into a corner and is by all intensive purposes making their brands unrecognizable. The majority of these franchises have not had games released on a regular basis since the 6th generation and as such many of them have become unknown to younger generations. While Konami believes that they can keep their properties alive by releasing pachinko machines or free-to-play games with the same characters, they don't realize that by doing so, they are inadvertently devaluing their own properties. People will see the characters on the screen and think of them as someone doing something cool, but without context it's nothing more than flashing lights being projected onto the viewer. New generations won't understand the reason for the conflict between Alucard and Dracula. New generations won't understand the intricacies of the Metal Gear saga or even experiments such as Boktai. With a business setup as they have now, Konami is ensuring easy money for themselves in the short term, but in the long-run, with all the ill-will they've built up, I guarantee that they shouldn't expect to have much support should they fall into a pinch.