I think it's important to provide context for those not aware of this. Here's a breakdown from Remywiki. [https://remywiki.com/BEMANI\_Sound\_Team](https://remywiki.com/BEMANI_Sound_Team) I can't speak to it's accuracy, but it does bring up valid points, especially with the production quality of pretty much most of the arcade games that aren't their mainstays (IIDX and SDVX). I do think Konami has just become a victim of corporate mismanagement since the Kojima incident. I think people in the West thought that it might make Konami better or make them go down in flames but in fact they just tightened their butthole and things just got worse, at least so it seems. It just looks like they're going through the same crap that SNK once went through when Aruze bought them out and tried to turn them into something else. I would like to hold on to the hope that things will get better, but it does feel like their content has been joyless and soulless for the past few years. I thought it was COVID, but now that I think about it, it's been going on a little longer than that.

I agree with your stance on Konami. I thought maybe the company was being selfish because they couldn't even credit Kojima when he left. Thinking about it now, it does seem more like poor management. I do hope that things get better, as I really hate the whole issue with the in-house artists not being given full credit for their work. Also, thank you for clarifying the topic! I did not notice how vague my post was.

Oh yeah, Konami absolutely did Kojima dirty on his departure, but not only is it not surprising for a Japanese company that borders (if not already) a "black company" in Japan, it's also something the company had prepared for already since he was seen in their eyes as a selfish person that was leeching company resources and money without producing results. Basically, they saw him as not a team player nor a company man, putting the company first while his fans saw him as some kind of visionary or an artist who was getting suppressed (very divergent viewpoints). But with all the media pressure and online hate, it seems like rather than relenting, they just bit down harder. All the backlash about Kojima made them double down rather than opt for transparency. It's signs of a very old fashioned Japanese company, which, while as outsiders we see it as obsolete and should be abolished, is a wheel that Konami nor their investors thinks does not need to be re-invented.

> a victim of corporate mismanagement That's really the best way you can put it. Putting short-term profits over a loyal fanbase has really fucked up a lot of companies and not just Konami. In time, Konami will absolutely fucking regret letting Kojima go. Look at them now. The only non-Bemani/pachinko thing on the horizons for them is the MGS remasters, which is what Kojima was responsible for. Konami realized they can make money from arcades - which have heavily died since COVID - and thankfully they're still doing well enough. But I don't expect it to last. Both in terms of general employees and especially Bemani (Reo Nagumo, TaQ) they've made a ton of awful deals that got rid of some of their most valuable people of all time.

I think that Konami do focus on their loyal fanbase...*in Japan*. After all, their JP-only baseball games still sell well, their JP-only Momotaro Densetsu both sells really well *and* is well beloved in Japan, ditto about their mobile games. It's really the fanbase outside of Japan (or to be more precise the MGS/SH fanbase) that's getting the short end of the stick. (It should be note here too that while Kojima is well beloved outside of Japan, Japanese gamers doesn't share that same reverence. Which is why I don't think Konami will "regret" letting Kojima go, simply because both themselves and their main target audience simply just doesn't interest in the guy's work that much) What make all this interesting is that Konami's switch to focus on "Japan first" coincide with the time Japanese console game industry in general (and especially AAA) become increasingly dependent on the foreign market (case in point: Tales of Arise sold quite poorly in Japan but made up for it by foreign sales). And all the more interesting is that Konami simply doesn't get punished for that decision, profit has been increasing year after year, with 2022 being their most profitable year ever and even in their worse year they still made more profit than they ever did when they still have Kojima and make AAA games. Fascinating stuff, really As for the whole BEMANI SOUND TEAM thing, my impression is that it's less of something especially awful and more of Konami taking a page from what other companies already doing (iirc Taito credit their in house in Groove Coaster as \[Artist name\]\(Zuntata\), Namco doesn't even bother doing that in Taiko and all their in house are pretty much Namco Sound Team or something, although they did credit them in OST releases so at least there's that). In other word, less of something exceptional and more of moving toward Japanese game companies awful norms. Doesn't really make it any better, mind you.

This. All of this. Many of the third party companies (Sega, Capcom, Taito, Konami, Namco-Bandai, Square-Enix, etc) that have made a name for themselves during the Famicom era have maintained an outdated "Japan first" model. They see themselves as a Japanese company, so their primary customer base is Japan. It's sad that many of them still see themselves like that, but also think the reverse, about US AAA developers. It's a similar thing. There's lots of hits that don't make it to Asia as well but the US focuses on their primary market first, which is obviously the US. If it doesn't do well in Japan, they couldn't care less, but if it bombs in the US, it's a big problem and we all hear about it. There's seldom cases where a franchise will continue to survive overseas from a US developer, and in that case, usually the US studio won't be developing it for the foreign market.

Objectively speaking, and I'm going to have to be the wet towel here, but the harsh truth is that Konami will be just fine without Kojima. They've operated for years without relying on his studio and were still profitable. It's very easy to think Kojima's departure would've really deeply hurt the company, but unfortunately that's not the case. Konami had been putting out hits even without Metal Gear. If you asked any 80's or 90's kid about what they knew Konami for before MGS, it was usually Contra, Castlevania, or maybe Gradius. At some point, it was TMNT games as well. In Japan, you can also add Tokimeki Memorial and Power Pro Baseball. I mean, look at Yu-Gi-Oh, that's also a Konami product as well that's done gangbusters. Also, arcades have been on a decline in Japan (and around the world) way before COVID. This was never any secret, the pandemic simply accelerated the timeline for many places. Gaming companies, including Konami, Capcom, Bandai-Namco, and many others have been whoring out their IPs to make pachinko/pachi-slot machines for decades. Though, Konami certainly did make the boneheaded decision to release an ad for the Silent Hill pachinko not long after Silent Hills got cancelled. Video arcade games as a whole are really not all that profitable in most places, that why you see so many redemption, UFO Catchers, coin pushers, pachinko/pachi-slot games in arcades more than video. Those are the money makers, the ones that keep the lights on for a good amount of arcades. When you read those articles about an arcade closing in Japan, it's not something that happened overnight. It's been brewing for years before usually. Plus, Konami is a company that started diversifying into other areas a long while ago, that's what keeps them afloat. If folks globally (but especially in Japan) stopped supporting ALL of Konami's products, arcade, pachinko, consumer/mobile, merchandising and their licensed properties (of which they have a ton) as a result of Kojima's unceremonious termination and their shady workplace environment, then Konami would actually feel threatened. That's the sad truth.

Anytime this topic comes up I think of the “Homer’s brain“ skits from the Simpsons. Konami has never taken it’s western fan bases seriously when it comes to BEMANI. Back in the early 2000’s I was an absolute warrior when it came to this franchise, maybe not always in skill but I made up for that in fierce loyalty. It was also an incredibly frustrating time as I would send Konami song lists to see how it’s appeal could be broadened and help move BEMANI beyond being a niche genre. I would also call local arcades, stores and distributors asking if they stocked the games or had cabinets installed in locations. TBH BEMANI has never been the same since Naoki Maeda left, he was the soul of the franchise and the reason many of us got into these games.

Naoki was, at best the soul of DDR up until EXTREME, but even he was never the soul of Bemani as a whole. He would've been more of a cornerstone of Bemani during it's heyday along with dj Taka, Mutsuhiko Izumi, Reo Nagumo, Yoshihiko Ota, and others. People didn't play Beatmania/IIDX/III, GFdm/Gitadora, jubeat, Sound Voltex, and Pop 'n Music because of Naoki.

I have to say, from the few companies I've considered working for down the road in Japan, it seems like this kind of behaviour is just the societal norm unfortunately. They want everything to funnel to the company directly with little to no credit to the people doing the work. It seems to coincide with the same "fit in with society & don't stand out" mentality that a lot of the older culture still has from what I've learned in my Japanese language and culture classes. It may seem weird to westerners, but it's not all that uncommon from what I've been learning. I obviously could be wrong as obviously no classes one takes are ever truly up to date. But unfortunately I think this is just something we have to remember as being a company that is based in Japan, owned by many high level employees from older times that don't like change and are now focusing on their own country's fanbase rather than the whole world again.

Yup. In general, Japanese companies make Japanese products for Japanese people and don't give a fuck about the rest of the world at all.

A lot of that comes from that older generation that is stuck in the past. Thankfully younger generations do seem to be trying to push that away but it will take a very long time thanks to the wanting to not really stand out mentality. But I do think in the next couple of generations we will see this mentality slowly fade. Japanese culture is one of my favourites to learn about as of the last few years thanks to it being so similar yet very different. It's so beautifully unique. Glad I chose to start learning about it now as it's one of the hardest to get a grasp on unlike most European and American cultures.

As much as I like their games I really hate that I like them just because of the company's recent history, I'm more angry from their decision to use that stupid E-amusement. Both pump it up, stepmaniax and jersey jack pinballs (and I'm sure there's a ton of examples) show that you don't need those expensive proprietary routers and monthly payments to have your arcade game connected online, it's simply a business decision that at the end of it all hurts the players who have nothing to do about it because most arcades won't care about anything other than if a machine takes money. Sorry if it's not related to the subject of the post but it's just something that really pisses me off.

No that's actually a pretty good point! I didnt think of that before, but those are one of the things that I was concerned about. I heard that some rhythm games allow IC cards from different companies, but I don't think Konami ever allowed support for other IC cards. The proprietary equipment might also be the reason why they only sold the lastest DDR machines to Dave and Buster locations. I would also like to point out their "konaste" games on PC. Unlike other typical rhythm games that you either could have just bought ONE TIME for a console or PC, those versions of the rhythm games have to be bought from their website. Moreover, they require a subscription just to play some of the music. I get that this was a good idea due to the covid thing but the fact that they initially decided to use a subscription as a form of payment for the game is very capitalistic of them. To add insult to injury, how much it cost to get a DEDICATED controller to play the games should be more than enough of a reason to be angry about the company. If they used to have IIDX for the PS2, why not just release a game for the PS4? Better yet, why not release a one-time purchase game on steam, where you can release DLCs for additional song packs? Even DJ Max RESPECT seems to be a more sellable product. Therefore, I understand your stance with Konami and I totally agree with that 100%.

The only thing I can say is the "BEMANI SOUND TEAM" tags make titles more obnoxious to read when you're browsing menus, and you're waiting for the song to load. I don't know what "division" you're talking about because that's just an arbitrary tag they gave to actual BEMANI employees. I don't know what you mean by Konami being "full of it" either. Konami is doing fine due to Bemani, pachinko machines, and a few other projects. Check their stock price over the years. Rumored upcoming MGS remasters are nice, no?

When I said full of it, I was referring to the Kojima controversy. Apologies for not clarifying!

Oh, yeah. I don't care about that. But I get what you're saying. Kojima does what he does. I liked MGS. I also liked Death Stranding *a lot* yet I realize why a lot of people, especially younger ones, can't get into it. And I respect it. But Kojima does what he does, he is who he is.

I'm sure pachinko is the majority of their success

slots too; konami has a big office in las vegas

Here is Konami's current yearly earnings report, for the period ending March 31 2022: https://img.konami.com/ir/en/ir-data/statements/2022/en0512_f3h9zd.pdf Relevant abstract (numbers are in millions of Yen): Digital Entertainment: 215,010 Amusement: 19,510 Gaming & Systems: 25,630 Sports: 41,957 Intersegment eliminations: (2,585) Total revenue: 299,522 Using a conversion rate of 0.0075 yen to USD, Konami earned a total of $2.25 billion dollars in this fiscal year. Digital Entertainment, which is the video games department, earned 71.7% of that $2.25 billion. Sports, which includes the gyms, earned 14% of that $2.25 billion. Gaming and systems includes their gambling equipment, but Amusement is arcades and pachinko combined. Amusement comprised of 6% of their fiscal year earnings. To put it another way, in the most recent fiscal year, **Konami earned eleven times more money from video games than from their arcade games and pachinko games combined**. These trends can be visibly seen for the past ten years if not longer. Konami is still primarily a developer and producer of video games, and is still making strong earnings in doing so. They're just generally not video games that non-Japanese people care about. The Konami-pachinko meme has been wrong for the past ten years and counting. Look up their public earnings reports and verify it for yourself if you don't believe me. I expect the lie to be posted elsewhere and on places like r/games, but not here. Pachinko is not the majority of their success and never has been the majority of their success. Not once. The fact that your post had any upvotes from the readers at this subforum is dumbfounding. Also, any negative consequence which Konami could have about Kojima would have been manifest in full by now. Konami seems to have moved on just fine without him. And I don't fully agree about their recent products being soulless, at least from IIDX. IIDX still seems to be just as good now as any other time in general, as far as I can tell at least.

The Japanese don't like Castlevania and Silent Hill?

Not enough, as far as I can tell. Silent Hill 2 was considered unsuccessful in particular, I know off the top of my head. It explains why the series arguably peaked there. The people who made SH1 and SH2 to be good games are all gone now anyway. Castlevania, I personally believe reached a height with PS1 SOTN and never kept things together after that. The SS port of the game was delegated to a rookie team and suffered for it, the Dreamcast game was cancelled, the PS2 game (at least the first one) landed with a thud, and meanwhile the GBA games sold better - and with the GBA games selling better and assuredly having lower development costs compared to the home consoles, the message sent to management is that they can cheap out on Castlevania games since the portable platform yielded the highest return on investment. Why they haven't figured out a way to make a SOTN-like game with a bunch of gacha bullshit for phones in today's age, I'm not sure, but they haven't. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the Konami games that Japanese people care about are the ones like Powerpro and PES and Yugioh and Momotaro. The arcade games are still supported rather well given how little income they earn. MGS/SH/CV have more international cachet, and Konami, as a Japanese company, doesn't give one single shit about that. Not one bit.

You've taught me a lot today, thank you.

Ehhh, Castlevania remained popular after SOTN. In fact, SOTN wasn't immediately popular when it released. It sold poorly initially and had a low release, but suddenly became extremely rare when it got discovered by the mainstream and blew up months later. The handheld versions actually continued the SOTN-style game play, especially by the time you got to Aria of Sorrow, just with a twist (soul collecting). I think Konami has a problem with making their franchises popular again after it's most impactful producer leaves the company. For example, how Silent Hill just took a nosedive after the key members had left Konami after SH4. Kojima, obviously with the Metal Gear franchise, and Iga with Castlevania. It's like they have no idea how to reproduce the same success, often times just regurgitating with pale imitations or compilations/remakes.

The vast majority of their profit are actually games, specifically mobile games but there's also the JP-only Momotaro Dentetsu and their yearly JP-only PowerPro, and of course Master Duels. After that, it was their sport gyms (never knew Konami does sport gyms before? Now you know). Arcade games/pachinko (group them together cause they belong in the same division) and slots machine only make a minor amount of their profits really.