Jimquisition: Konami

[mjc0961]

Oh come on. No ones taking this attitude towards Capcom, they're even worse with this stuff.

That and the stuff Jim said about Ubisoft, seriously, who DRMs a PSN store game, Capcom?

Or how bout Namco for screwing over Tales fans for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time?

"Do one about Capcom!" was my second thought upon watching this.

"Do one about EA!" was my first. Sadly, there are people out there today who think EA isn't shit anymore. Yes, I just said that, and I'll say it again: I've heard from people who think EA isn't shit anymore.

But yeah, after my own personal EA rage wore off, my immediate thought was of Capcom and how shit they've been lately too.

Hell, the majority of the big retail release publisher section of the industry has gotten shit over the past few years. There's already been episodes about Nintendo and Ubisoft, today hit Konami, and already other people are in the comments hoping to see EA and Capcom get their turn because we all like Jim's special brand of pointing out all the shitty things these companies do.

Heres why [http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5229/capcomandtheirunpopular.jpg]

Oh, I didn't even know that bit about Mega Man Legends for PSP being planned and then canned (Capcom's now excepted MO when it comes to anything Mega Man). And legal reasons for not being able to release them on PSN? I believe that bullshit about as much as I believe that story about how Mega Man Powered Up couldn't be put on PSN because it didn't work as a digital download: not at all (as far as MMPU goes, it was already available digitally on the Japanese PSN, so that was obviously BS).

I do think the Dead Rising 2 Case Zero bit is unfair though. It's not a paid demo, it's a standalone game. And it has its own free demo (just like all XBLA titles), so you can try it out for free. Off The Record though is dumb, since apparently they didn't even change the dialog so it matches things Frank would say. Frank never gives awful punny one liners in Dead Rising, but suddenly in Off the Record, he's spouting altered versions of all of Chuck's crappy puns? Why not just release a Frank skin for DR2, then? Oh, wait, because they couldn't charge $40 for that. Never mind. And the cheat code DLC, man that pisses me off.

And yeah, Mega Man Universe, Mega Man Legends 3, Ace Attorney Investigations 2, fuck you Capcom.

 

[esperandote]

Two of my favorite franchises RIP Good Konami.

No Hideo Kojima and no Akira Yamaoka+Masahiro Ito equals bad Konami.

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well my first thought is that you really need to look at Konami's Japanese marketing. Never underestimate how racist the Japanese are and how much PR power a good old fashioned display of scorn towards the USA can merit. Once upon a time I was into reading translated Japanese periodicals for things like video games, and apparently US releases can actually reduce the value of a franchise int he eyes of the Japanese consumer who want things to be kept exclusively for them. Snubbing the US with movies like say releasing the "Final Fantasy X: International Edition" internationally to everyone except the US, or not releasing the final chapter of "Final Fantasy X" called "Final Mission" that answered the remaining questions and tied up the story outside of Japan at all can be popular moves... albiet that's Square Enix.

Going by what I've read, albiet a considerable amount of time ago, it's quite possible Komnami is keeping it's US involvement low-key for reasons of domestic marketing. Even if more money can be made from the US market, there is more to it than that when developers and publishers can be viewed as "sell outs" and "race traitors" for bringing something to the US at all. The vaguely insulting nature of their presentations could also be intentional, again you'd have to compare any similar events they have held in Japan to really get the big picture.

That said, on it's own, I have to agree with Jim that this does sound pretty ridiculous.

One thing I *WILL* say that I disagree with Jim on is how going up against something like "Modern Warfare 3" is a bad thing. In my opinion one of the problems with the gaming industry right now is that it engages in cartel behavior. It does things like coordinate release schedules to avoid direct competition and engages in coordinated pricing and price raises (such as when you saw the price of games rise from $50 to $60). As things stand now a game that costs a million bucks to develop, and one that costs a hundred million bucks to develop both go for $60 due to the gaming industry coordinating that.

In short the gaming industry doesn't directly compete inside of itself, at least not in the way it's supposed to. The idea being that direct competition forces companies to produce the best possible product for the lowest possible prices. Not doing this ultimatly explains a lot of why so many games being released are crap, and in such sorry state, there are no real concerns among the big companies of actually being outdone.

Doing things like refusing to go up against "Call Of Duty" are part of the problems with the industry, albiet what you need is big properties to do this. Instead they stagger releases so the big releases don't directly overlap with each other as much as possible so everyone can get as much money as possible.

It just so happens that this kind of behavior is illegal in the US, or it's supposed to be. It's just that the gaming industry has avoided notice, and/or nobody has decided to pursue it. This is very similar to things like gas companies coordinating to set prices which has lead to massive federal investigations. The same can be said of other cartels like those running diamonds (or other gems), gold, and similar things which have fallen under similar scrutiny in the past, albiet not as publically as has happened with the gas companies. Monopolies are illegal, but for all intents and purposes so are "guilds" or "cartels" that effectively create multi-business alliances towards the same end and simply divvy up the market. It's a complicated thing, and truthfully I expect within a decade or so we're going to see some legal action on this front, it's just that guys like Richard Blumenthal (Former Connecticut Attorney General) who seem to have touched on it and the whole issue of corruption in the gaming/media/electronic front have always had too much on their plate to go after it whole heartedly. It is going to happen though.... and really it's not going to be a bad thing. Konami trying to compete directly with a big release (stupidly or not given the scale of products) is one of the few things it's actually done right.

 

[Elyxard]

I have to echo other's sentiments that I often forget that Konami exists nowadays. What have they put out in the last five years that wasn't mediocre or poorly handled in some fashion? They really give off that impression that they.. just don't care, and it baffles me. It's not like they wouldn't have the resources to bring up some of their franchises to a proper state.

Why can't Castlevania get a 2D side scroller that isn't just a shameless rehash full of constantly recycling elements? How do they not have the capacity to make a modern SoTN with completely original artwork in this day and age?

Silent Hill.. urgh, I don't think you can mis-handle a franchise worse.

Suikoden; that series could have crushed Tales and Final Fantasy if Konami put even a modicum of effort into budgets and promotion.

One thing in common with all their popular series is that they disbanded all the original teams behind them. Why? Heck if I know. The only thing they put any sliver of effort into is Metal Gear, and honestly, that ship has sailed now. Not to mention that their dev team quite literally failed to make Rising work and had to hand it off to someone else.

Now that I think about it, what does Konami even make anymore? I don't think they have a single local team left that's actively working on something.

 

[Seneschal]

Someone buy the Suikoden franchise from under them, QUICKLY! O__O

 

[RaikuFA]

Oh come on. No ones taking this attitude towards Capcom, they're even worse with this stuff.

That and the stuff Jim said about Ubisoft, seriously, who DRMs a PSN store game, Capcom?

Or how bout Namco for screwing over Tales fans for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time?

"Do one about Capcom!" was my second thought upon watching this.

"Do one about EA!" was my first. Sadly, there are people out there today who think EA isn't shit anymore. Yes, I just said that, and I'll say it again: I've heard from people who think EA isn't shit anymore.

But yeah, after my own personal EA rage wore off, my immediate thought was of Capcom and how shit they've been lately too.

Hell, the majority of the big retail release publisher section of the industry has gotten shit over the past few years. There's already been episodes about Nintendo and Ubisoft, today hit Konami, and already other people are in the comments hoping to see EA and Capcom get their turn because we all like Jim's special brand of pointing out all the shitty things these companies do.

Heres why [http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5229/capcomandtheirunpopular.jpg]

Oh, I didn't even know that bit about Mega Man Legends for PSP being planned and then canned (Capcom's now excepted MO when it comes to anything Mega Man). And legal reasons for not being able to release them on PSN? I believe that bullshit about as much as I believe that story about how Mega Man Powered Up couldn't be put on PSN because it didn't work as a digital download: not at all (as far as MMPU goes, it was already available digitally on the Japanese PSN, so that was obviously BS).

I do think the Dead Rising 2 Case Zero bit is unfair though. It's not a paid demo, it's a standalone game. And it has its own free demo (just like all XBLA titles), so you can try it out for free. Off The Record though is dumb, since apparently they didn't even change the dialog so it matches things Frank would say. Frank never gives awful punny one liners in Dead Rising, but suddenly in Off the Record, he's spouting altered versions of all of Chuck's crappy puns? Why not just release a Frank skin for DR2, then? Oh, wait, because they couldn't charge $40 for that. Never mind. And the cheat code DLC, man that pisses me off.

And yeah, Mega Man Universe, Mega Man Legends 3, Ace Attorney Investigations 2, fuck you Capcom.

I don't agree with everything on there as well.

Speaking of Capcom, has anyone heard how Aris was punished? Or did they even not care? I did hear a Capcom rep was at the event.

 

[Orekoya]

Wow, when I first loaded this video and saw it just called Konami I spent a minute sitting here trying to remember what Konami has even made. I had literally forgotten this company existed. It wasn't until I started watching the video did I remember.

 

[Littaly]

Pronouncing Japanese names while angry is hard sh*t ^^

 

[Jacked Assassin]

In defense of Konami they released some awesome Dragon Clan ninja costumes on PS Home the day after Ninja Gaiden 3 was released.
....
Wait a minute, Ninja Gaiden is published by Tecmo; Not Konami.
....
In defense of myself I can't defend Konami.

 

[Michster]

I could just wait for Jim to do an episode about it but could someone tell me why capcom are morons too?

Also: how could you possibly f*ck up SH2? <_< Seriously, how can you take away the mist, make the game look worse AND NOT REALISE IT?!

Heres why [http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5229/capcomandtheirunpopular.jpg]

They are beyong morons. I'm convinced their CEO is Dr. Weird and Sven is Steve.

Seriously, watch this:


Replace corn with Street Fighter and you've got Capcom.

Now that you mention it...THAT IS pretty moronic!

 

[Lunar Templar]

I seeeeee, so if Yahtzee gets his hands on the HD release of Silent Hill 2............I predict a 5 minute yellow screened massive rant coming in a few weeks time.

o.0 oh dear god .... the rage would be .... i dare say greater then too humans


>.>
this kinda explains WHY there's never any mention of Konami games and more :/ ah well, this point i pretty much expect all the company's i liked growing up turning to shit

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

They delayed Book of Memories? Ya know, if I had any remote interest in that game I'd give a shit, but that game's existence is a puzzle to me. I mean, what the hell is Silent Hill doing in a Diablo game?! (No pun intended) And who honestly thought have 3(!!!) Silent Hill games in one month was a good idea? I love that series, but that is just ridiculous to me.

The HD version? I'm not gonna go there, so I'll just stop now about that franchise while I still have a decent blood pressure.

Konami has been dead since they killed off Suikoden. YOU BASTARDS WHY!

This fucking too. I mean, they had something there and they blew it.

I don't know what they are doing, but they seriously need to stop it, just....fucking stop it.

 

[AJax_21]

Konami making bad decisions. News at eleven.

But seriously Jim, Thank you for making this episode. It blows my mind how far this company is running its franchises through the ground. And that Silent Hill 2 HD port, dear god what a clusterfuck. Thank god I still have the original PS2 games.

 

[Trishbot]

I loved Silent Hill once. But my loved one has died and I've come to terms with the death.

... But then Konami dug up the corpse and has been parading it around like a string puppet for more money. Makes me feel a tad uneasy about that.

 

[Nikolaz72]

You should look at Capcom.

"Lol. Ace attorney 4 below 80 Metacritic? Next game not getting english translation"
"Whats that. Ace Attorney investigations below 80 metacritic score? No english translation on the second one!"

"Layton+Ace Attorney? Western gamers? Lol. They would not understand. NO TRANSLATION 4 U"

Well. Enjoy getting your game fantranslated and pirated you jackasses! Because youknow. Its the only way your fans can play the game now.

 

[FoolKiller]

Ah, now the question is who does Jim hate more, Ubisoft or Konami.

I think its Konami because they keep messing with his love of Silent Hill. I'm sure Yahtzee would agree. I may be angry with Konami experimenting with Silent Hill but at least they keep trying. I haven't really hated any Silent Hill game so far.

On the other hand I get downright pissed with Ubisoft's million DLC that was always a part of the story but now is purchased piecemeal.

But maybe even EA should be in that. It seems that EA has reached a new level of stupid asshat.

For those that haven't heard, The Saboteur (a completely single player game) came with a piece of DLC if you bought the game new. Due to EA's authentication process, those with the content will no longer be able to use it as there will be no server to tell you the content is on your console.

As an added injury, it seems as though you could purchase it from the XBL marketplace and then still be able to use the content after the server shuts down. So in effect, if you buy the new game, you still have to pay for the DLC again.

 

[Fappy]

Its a shame really. Konami made some awesome games in the 16-bit era.

 

[Tuznecote]

Ahaaaa! I was only in the game the other day checking out there massive price cuts on secondhand games and noticed Metal Gear Solid HD on a rack. I was so baffled. I didnt know it came out. I was wondering if someone accidentally put the pre-order stuff on the wrong rack.