Konami may have moved a lot of their business interests away from video games directly, but they still contribute a healthy amount of work to the industry as a whole. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Konami Europe president Masami Saso spoke openly about the plans the Japanese company has for the future, and how they view the outlook of the industry going forward.
“The devices to play games has diversified, and the number of people who have the chance to play games has increased,” he said. The goal is apparently to innovate the way in which people play games, but also the gaming experience their titles offer too. A big part of this strategy will rely on existing game consoles, even though Konami has plans in the works for something new, they’re being very coy.
“Even with new platforms coming out, we believe high-end console games are the most important. We challenge for innovative ideas and technology within our console games and apply them to other devices, so we will continue to put effort into our console games,” Saso stated. “In addition to the multi-device titles for PES and Yu-Gi-Oh, we plan to work on projects with other globally known IPs in the near future.”
And no, it doesn’t seem like this new project has anything to do with Konami’s other efforts. The push toward empowering eSports in the PES brand appears to be its own distinct project. Even though the company renamed PES to reflect these renewed pushes, it doesn’t seem like there’s much connective tissue between this unknown IP and the sports franchise. Although the wording of these statements suggests that mobile gaming will be a big part of their overall push.
It seems pretty clear that Konami will begin pushing for some new brands, while also leveraging already held IPs and new tech. Saso refined the point by saying, “our extensive experience in creating games for many devices is a strength we have at Konami like no other.”
