Konami’s new CEO, Hideki Hayakawa, today confirmed that the company’s focus going forward will be in the mobile gaming market.
Hayakawa hailed mobile as the "future of gaming" and promised to aggressively pursue pay-as-you-play strategies to promote selling "features" rather than in-game items or physical products. Even long-celebrated franchises such as Metal Gear Solid and Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven are being targeted in this drastic change of strategy for the company.
"We hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too," he said.
Hayakawa is confident that mobile gaming "will take on the new role of linking the general public to the gaming world." He did not go so far as to say that Konami is abandoning console gaming, but made it clear that mobile was now the company’s "main platform."
Konami has been a magnet of gaming news in the last few months following controversial rumors regarding Hideo Kojima’s future with the company. Kojima has since confirmed that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be the last game in the series he works on.
Similarly, there was much anticipation for Kojima’s upcoming collaboration with film director Guillermo del Toro, Silent Hills, but the project has since been canceled and its acclaimed demo P.T. has been removed from the PlayStation Store.
Thanks, NeoGAF.