But all that may be about to change according to new reports from Video Game Chronicle and Eurogamer, which claim that Konami is now full steam ahead on “bringing back its biggest brands to the premium games space,” according to VGC. Chief among these new AAA projects is a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, which is reportedly being handled by Virtuos, the studio largely known for Switch ports of titles like Dark Souls Remastered, The Outer Worlds, and The BioShock Collection, as well as for its support work on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Uncharted 4. VGC says that Konami is also planning to remaster the original MGS games for modern consoles ahead of the remake, which is reportedly in early development.
Meanwhile, a new Castlevania title described as a “reimagining” of the series is “currently in development internally at Konami in Japan, with support from local external studios,” according to VGC. It would be the first major installment in the 35-year-old series since 2014’s Lords of Shadow 2.
Then there’s Silent Hill, which has been the subject of much speculation and reporting over the past few months. At least two games in the horror series are said to be in development, including one from Bloober Team, makers of the excellent Layers of Fear titles. The other game is reportedly being outsourced to a Japanese studio, per VGC. It’s long been rumored that Kojima Productions is working on a Silent Hill — rumors that have devolved into conspiracy theories involving “hidden messages” and another mystery horror project called Abandoned that you can read more about here. While internet sleuths have turned up little in terms of answers to the Hideo Kojima mystery, reliable outlet Gematsu reports that the auteur is indeed working on a new Silent Hill game after reconciling with Konami, which he infamously exited on bad terms in 2015.
All of this is very good news for long-suffering Konami fans, who’ve had to subsist on smaller offerings like Super Bomberman R, a game that launched with the Nintendo Switch in 2017, and 2019’s Contra: Rogue Corps. But the less said about the latter, the better.
In truth, the only fans who could at the very least feign happiness with Konami were those playing yearly installments of Pro Evolution Soccer, which had been the publisher’s most reliable video game franchise for the past few years. In fact, it’d risen the ranks to become a worthy competitor to the FIFA series, Electronic Arts’ international sales behemoth which largely controls the digital pitch. Those days seem to be over for Konami, though.
This year, the publisher has rebranded Pro Evolution Soccer as eFootball, a free-to-play online title that ditches the premium price tag for more microtransactions. It also does away with the series’ old Fox engine in the hopes of bringing a fresh, next-gen experience to diehard fans. The results have been disastrous.
Just a day after eFootbal 2022′s release, the title has become the most poorly reviewed game on Steam, according to Kotaku. As of this writing, only 9% of the title’s over 12,000 reviews are positive. Major complaints cover everything from the game’s questionable graphics, to incredibly buggy gameplay, to a serious lack of content. Of course, Konami was transparent about the latter when it announced the game’s roadmap earlier this year, describing the launch version of eFootball 2022 as more of a “demo” that would receive additional content in the coming weeks and months.
At the moment, players can only choose from eight soccer clubs for online and local matches. While the choices are slim, this should have been the ideal content with which to showcase the new engine, but uh…
Konami wasted no time trying to get the Steam fire under control, putting out a statement on Twitter, promising updates in the coming weeks to fix the game’s most glaring issues as well as add more content.
“After the release of eFootball 2022, we have received lots of feedback and requests regarding game balance that includes pass speed and defense operation. We would also like to acknowledge that there have been reports of problems users have experienced with cutscenes, facial expressions, movements of players, and the behavior of the ball,” reads the statement. “This work will be continuously updated, quality will be improved, and content will be added consistently. From next week onward, we will prepare for an update in October, while receiving further opinions through questionnaires to our users.”
At least Konami may have other projects on the horizon…
