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The Konami exodus

391 points by slantyyz 9y ago

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
salesguy222 9y ago
I love how the society we currently live in places so much confidence in the statement that "corporations = efficient, rational market actors"... and yet here we are, slaves to whims of a few thousand people globally who control 35 trillion dollars in assets. This virtually guarantees that if you want to make a liveable income, you either need to work for or sell to a truly psychotic group of individuals who control an arbitrarly large portion of wealth thanks to a host of monetary and legal policies.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Are there any other ways to effectively organize an economy? This subthread doesn't seem too promising, but I'd genuinely like to know.
  - visarga 9y ago
    Yeah, communism, but it only works in post scarcity domains, such as open source software. If there is scarcity there will be selfishness.
    - thehardsphere 9y ago
      I don't think what happens in open source software is accurately described as "communism" in any sense of that word. Especially considering that OSS in practice is a scheme for corporations (including those in direct competition with each other) to pool resources and share their research and development costs.
      - Iridiumkoivu 9y ago
        I agree with your comment. We have to keep in mind that "communism" is a word for utopian society (e.g. no state, no "money", no classes, and common ownership over the means of production) which is the end goal of "socialists" stemming from "Marxism" which is a socio-economic analysis of class relations. The core of "socialism" is the question about ownership of the means of production (as explained by Marx). The chief reason for why free and open source software isn't "communism" in any sense of the package of things that word contains is that in practise it almost always leads to a very controlled extreme planned centralised collectivist systems. Free and open software development and communities on the other hand are based on extremely individualistic non-centralised non-planned and non-governed system. If free and open software was inherently "Communist" or "Marxist", then we'd have "ONE FREE OS, ONE FREE DESKTOP, AND ONE FREE DESIGN". Instead we have several free software operating systems, dozens of competing desktop environments, and uncountable number of designs for every individual taste. If you want to know more about this point of view, I recommend you read the "Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich von Hayek. It's true that in free and open source software we people share the code and tools (i.e. the means of production) to some degree. However we people still inherently govern the domains of our work and we get rewarded for the work that gets done. Instead of "money", hackers often get rewarded e.g. by "fame". Eric S. Raymond explains quite well in his book Cathedral and the Bazaar how this works and in great detail too. But most importantly there is no central planner which would dictate how things work and coordinate the operations. If some guy doesn't like how a free and open software project is being developed, he can fork the fuck out of it and create a competing project. And this makes it sound more like anarcho-capitalism than anything else. We don't have "centralised state" that would set the framework where code is allowed to happen and "market of ideas" operates. This fits into agenda of our current corporatist society quite well and even companies which are in direct competition can benefit from it pouring resources to projects of mutual interest. It's true that when we inspect how free and open software projects are developed, we at times counter cases of central-planner but often we notice that this entity is restricted by the pressure from the users and the fear of having project forked and lost "fame" / "reputation". This is basically why "dictators" that lead their projects aren't sole rulers of their domains. Most commonly we see governing bodies of few selected individuals aka. oligarchies that manage the free and open software project.
  - andy_ppp 9y ago
    I actually like the idea that the workforce own businesses instead of Capital owning them. There is no reason not to have cooperatives run everything, however often successful co-ops tend to float because the workforce can see a big payoff. Greed doesn't need to define the reason why businesses are created though. Maybe instead of pay defining where you are within an organisation it's how much vote you get in the business. And obviously you can engage in peer to peer performance review system like Valve. To be honest I'd only ask one question; How much do you want to work with X again? 0 - 10.
    - a_t48 9y ago
      The Valve system just leads to cliques and making it tough to get things done.
      - andy_ppp 9y ago
        Almost like all big organisations.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - tajen 9y ago
      All of this is possible in the current economy – Many companies are founded by employees. However, I'm personally comvinced they are not efficient, neither in decision-making nor in usage of the workforce. So what happens to them, and why aren't they the most common form of employment? Maybe some don't keep their form of cooperative decision-making, maybe others never make it big on the market, maybe creators of such companies don't intend to become AirBnb or Amazon and prefer a lifestyle business – all in all, traditional companies still dominate them.
      - Asooka 9y ago
        I think it's because being a cooperative is not a stable state. You can go cooperative->traditional, but it's much harder to transition from traditional->cooperative. Ultimately, a hierarchical society is instinctively easy to grasp, while a more fluid mostly-equal one is not. People still instinctively understand hierarchies better than full-on democracy.
  - elihu 9y ago
    We could mostly stick with the regulated market system that a majority of industrialized nations have now, but with higher taxes on investment income and inheritance, and more robust social services to prevent wealth from accumulating to handful of people. It might also help to have stronger unions and more businesses structured as worker-owned co-ops, public benefit corporations, and non-profits.
    - tajen 9y ago
      What do you think about France? It looks like a good, first approximation of your proposal, many people defend worker-owned businesses here, "service public citoyen" (public benefit corporations), it's difficult to amass wealth (the only rich are from inheritance) and would unionize the hell against powerful corporations if Apple were born here. Drawback: We don't have Apple, we have DailyMotion and people don't aim to become huge enough to compete against Silicon Valley startups. I don't like being entrepreneur in this context personally, but the startup ecosystem is thriving in Paris and Lyon and I sure hope the current generation is about to issue some major players. I personally fail to see how they can be profitable with our tax levels, social obligations and regulations, but it may happen. List of hot startups in France: http://www.eu-startups.com/2017/02/10-french-startups-to-look-out-for-in-2017/ http://www.eu-startups.com/2017/02/10-french-startups-to-loo...
      - elihu 9y ago
        I don't know enough about France to have an opinion one way or another (I visited once for a few days back in 2000), but what you say sounds mostly good. From a startup perspective, I think complex regulations are a bigger impediment than taxes; any company that starts as a couple people in a garage shouldn't have to be experts in corporate law in addition to whatever problem they're trying to solve. I expect in order to have a successful environment for startups to happen, you need network effects of smart people congregating in one place and be a place where creative people would want to live. Having good universities really helps. It seems like France should be able to supply those things, but as I said, I don't have specific recent knowledge about what France is like these days.
  - SapphireSun 9y ago
    The extractive nature of business can't be fixed without changing things more fundamentally, but basic income or another strong safety net combined with free college education and health care makes labor participation much less coercive. If you can say no to a bad deal, the ideals of the free market are realized in much greater force. Notably, we often respect this in our colleagues. We lionize "fuck you money" and appreciate when our friends have earned their way into the ability to act according to their inclinations. However, at least on this board, I think there is an over emphasis on needing to earn or otherwise deserve that bare level of respect. Workers saying no in greater numbers provides stronger checks on corporate behavior. A sibling comment discusses worker owned businesses, which is a stronger form of this.
  - homulilly 9y ago
    I'm a big fan of the idea of having business owned by their employees instead of a handful of shareholders.
    - sofaofthedamned 9y ago
      John Lewis Partnership in the UK have this model.
      - walshemj 9y ago
        Up to a point the outsourced cleaners are no longer partners for example.
    - lmm 9y ago
      In practice that tends to mean concentrating power in the hands of a single presidential leader (since employees are less well-organized than shareholders, and more likely to have day jobs) and/or allowing unprofitable divisions to drag the whole enterprise down long after they should've been shuttered. It has its upsides (at a minimum it tends to lead to a better level of basic decency in working conditions) but it's not a panacea.
  - salesguy222 9y ago
    When the Fed stops dispersing cheap money to banks, who disperse it to publicly traded companies... and when the "regulators" and "prosecutors" and "judges" aren't vacation pals with the Fortune 500 CEOs... then maybe we will have some kind of a true free market, and not just an illusion of one run by the American Corporate Mafia :) All businesses in America are fighting a zero sum game. Values and ethics are chucked out the window once you grow past Mojang's size. Out goes the employee ownership and work-life balance, in comes the desparation to grow into a monopoly. Wall St is a knife fight in my opinion. There will always be a competitor more desperate than you to win, and the market will reward them for it.
- eltoozero 9y ago
  Maybe start a corporation capable of sustaining a couple hundred individuals then review your comment. Source: I've been self-employed and incorporated for nearly a decade, presently working up to employee #3.
  - salesguy222 9y ago
    I would love to, but that doesn't negate my statement that not all corporations are logical and efficient actors in the market place. As a result, too many humans on this earth will have to jump through the stupid and wasteful hoops set up by the CEO of a company that receives cheap money (indirectly) from the Fed. So the next time you are working unpaid overtime and planning the CEO's first class flights to a "client meeting" that is really just a Wall St funded vacation for him...
- Quarrelsome 9y ago
  > I love how the society we currently live in places so much confidence in the statement that "corporations = efficient, rational market actors"... That's the lie. Its always been the case that a free market needs regulation to prevent it turning into a feudal state. Its just that wannabe feudal states have an interest in making the population think that regulation is bad and in the US at least there is less regulation on political lobbying than there should be. The capitalist and free market mantra is correct but without a regulation and legal arm restraining its worst excess it breeds corruption and corruption is a concern of every system.
  - salesguy222 9y ago
    Yup! I am mostly in agreement. What is scary, I'd say, is that we do have many regulations and legal checks and prosecutors and laws and so on and so forth here... ... they just aren't enforced at all on the big dogs who are doing all the crazy shit. You have to be as wreckless as Enron to even get a taste of post-hoc legal smackdown, and even then, the damage is still done.
zitterbewegung 9y ago
I think this will backfire and just make Death Stranding and Kohjima more popular. As a developer Konami is really struggling and I wouldn't be suprised that it closed down soon or got consolidated .
- grawlinson 9y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the assumption that Konami shuttered all their console games to focus on pachinko machines because the profit margins are just too delicious to pass up.
  - sythe2o0 9y ago
    They're developing another game with the engine used for MGSV, but you could account that to just trying to recoup costs involved in making that engine. Otherwise I don't know of other console or pc game projects of theirs.
    - thirdsun 9y ago
      As far as I know there's another MGS spin off they are working on and they continue developing and releasing their annual Pro Evolution Soccer. With the latter my guess is they want a piece of the money-making pie that is Ultimate Team and works so well for EA Sports' FIFA series.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - intoverflow2 9y ago
      > Otherwise I don't know of other console or pc game projects of theirs. They don't need to, Pachinko (their newer machines use fox engine it seems) exists.
  - Steko 9y ago
    The article says they focus on mobile after printing money with Dragon Collection franchise.
kazinator 9y ago
That's crazy. Ok, "you can't put on your resume you worked here or we will take you to court." The judge will only want to know one thing: is it true whether or not that person worked for Konami. Is there no paper trail to substantiate that? Contracts? Did they have no signed contracts, and get paid in cash?
- kbenson 9y ago
  My guess is that there's an overly broad NDA involved, and some enterprising Konami lawyer figured out it can apply to divulging that you were employed there at all.
  - kazinator 9y ago
    Konami == KOnNA baka-na shachou-ha, MIta koto nai! こんな馬鹿な社長は、見たことない。 :)
  - labster 9y ago
    You can bypass the NDA by doing: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ Start
- Asooka 9y ago
  Interesting if you can dodge this. "Worked on a tactical espionage action game for major consoles"?
lazugod 9y ago
Are these actions legal in Japan?
- wapz 9y ago
  I work for a Japanese company. Even if something is illegal in Japan it still happens. One particular thing is unpaid overtime. Most employees are hourly and they can be "forced" to work overtime for 50+ hours/week (all the time) without overtime pay. If they bring it up they will get "relocated" or just get harassed the entire time they're there until they quit. If they bring it to the government work agency (hello work) the company will deny the hours and say it was all voluntary. I have been told this personally by hello work. Also, I only have experience in one Japanese company so surely this does not occur at all companies.
  - wst_ 9y ago
    I am sure there are companies like this. Yet, I also see a wind of change. I see Japanese who leave on time. Strangely enough, I also see foreigners who stay late. Above mentioned voluntarism, though, is very difficult to explain even by Japanese themselves. Many of them stay long and couldn't tell you why. It's not that simple. It is entire culture, ethos of group member (not necessary an employee), who works hard for the sake of a group.
sillysaurus3 9y ago
One thing we're overlooking is that even if these actions are illegal, employees are rarely in a position to do anything about it. The power asymmetry is vast. Most employees don't have savings, especially in the game industry, and they'd regret spending any of it on courts. Could the courts even do much? Having newspapers write an article about it is probably one of the more effective ways of dealing with this.
- visarga 9y ago
  If the courts function like police in Japan, then there is no hope. If police arrests you it's 99% sure they will get a conviction. It's a matter of saving face for them to convict everyone they arrest. You are judged by the cop, then rubber stamp sentenced by the judge.
  - glandium 9y ago
    Arguably, the flip side is that you're not prosecuted unless they're near certain they can nail you.
    - mc32 9y ago
      I think that is of very little consolation for two reasons: 1. People don't get murdered, instead they die of "heart attacks," or they "accidentally fell down a stairwell" and the perp goes free. 2. They can keep you detained without representation for quite some time, in the meantime you are worn down physically and psychologically till you just want to make it "go away" so you sign a "confession" letter.
      - bitwize 9y ago
        You seem to be confusing Japan with the United States.
        mc32 9y ago
        I'd suggest you read up about how the legal system works in Japan before you blurt out a facile quip: Confessions[1] and other unpleasantness[2]. [1]http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/japan-forced-confessions-wrong-convictions-161010084400226.html http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/japan-forc... [2]https://gaijinass.com/2011/01/02/7-brutal-realities-regarding-arrest-in-japan/ https://gaijinass.com/2011/01/02/7-brutal-realities-regardin...
maruhan2 9y ago
It doesn't matter if it's legal or not. If someone is gonna apply to another game company and the company sees konami in the resume, they could call up konami and ask about them. Then, Konami will give a bad review. That alone is a risk employees do not want to take
- anilgulecha 9y ago
  Not if as a policy Konami will always give bad reviews. Then pretty much everyone will ignore this, and lean on other background checks. Working at a company is a fact, and can be stated as such. There seems to be no legal basis to stop their name being put on the resume.
- zamalek 9y ago
  > Konami will give a bad review. In some countries this is illegal - the worst you can say about a person is "no comment."
  - teraflop 9y ago
    Which would those be, out of curiosity? I know it's a widespread urban legend in the US that employers can't give negative references, but I've never heard of a country where it's actually true.
    - dom0 9y ago
      Germany, for example.
      - amagasaki 9y ago
        Well, at least in reference letters, former employees can be criticised quite well. Mostly by omitting certain words. I believe most employers have practice in reading between the lines. edit: I always thought this is just culturally. I have no idea, but I don't believe there are any laws that forbid telling the truth about former employees.
spamlord 9y ago
Hopefully this is included in Jim Sterling's next 'Fuck Konami News' segment, because fuck Konami.
Illniyar 9y ago
That seems very counterproductive to me, who will want to go work in Konami once this behavior is known? This will probably severely hamper their ability to recruit, especially recruit experienced people. Am I missing something? Perhaps it's more common in Japan's video game industry to work in the same place for life?
- watwut 9y ago
  > Perhaps it's more common in Japan's video game industry to work in the same place for life? Yes: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/
- ajdlinux 9y ago
  It's much more common in all Japanese industries to work in the same place for life.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Actually the video game industry is one of the more labor liquid industries in Japan. Teams leave, producers with track records go solo, key guys get poached, etc. Definitely more liquid than manufacturing, finance, insurance, IT consulting, publishing, aerospace, shosha, semiconductors, etc.
  - wapz 9y ago
    Do you have examples of key guys getting poached in the Japanese market? From my experience here most people tend to stay a long time or move on their own will (not as often as US IMO though)
    - hkmurakami 9y ago
      The Tactics Orge team from Quest getting poached by Square back around 1995.
- toyg 9y ago
  It's Japan. There isn't real competition for talent - one is hired out of school, depending on the school he attended, and that's pretty much it. "Abandoning" a company is seen as suspiciously disloyal. In exchange for that, most companies reward employees with jobs for life, seniority-based career progression, housing and health perks, vacation trips and so on. IT and gaming are more dynamic than others but the mainstream attitude is still the zaibatsu one.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
afinlayson 9y ago
Funny gamers are blacklisting Konami, for putting out an unfinished game like MGS5, firing Kojima and trying to ruin his legacy with Metal Gear Survivor....
- jakebasile 9y ago
  I can never forgive them for what they did to Kojima. That man is a treasure and helped create some of my most formative games. I'd say I won't buy any more of their games but they don't seem interested in making any.
  - intoverflow2 9y ago
    It's awful his IP (Not just MGS but ZOE, Snatcher and Policenauts) will be locked up in a company with zero respect for it. But the man is so prolific and Kojima Productions is clearly serious business, it'll probably mean his next projects have the potential to be his best yet.
- CJefferson 9y ago
  What do you mean by blacklisting? MGS5 was the best selling game in the series.
  - Iridiumkoivu 9y ago
    Wait for the sales figures of the next Metal Gear and PES games. They're likely going to be absolutely awful. MGS5 was worked by Kojima and even with all the trouble with Konami, people wanted to show support for Kojima. Gamers did discuss about boycotting the game but since it would have been a disservice for both Kojima and gamers that boycott didn't materialise. However when Konami for example removed "A Hideo Kojima Game" text from the MGS5 there was a protest by gamers to get it back there.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  How do you boycott a product that isn't being made?
nnq 9y ago
Mostly offtopic, but: Is it just me, or based on both politics, social dynamics and economic indicators, Japan is economically speaking a house of cards waiting to fucking fall apart in a huuuuge crysis?! I mean, I guess that aged population coupled with pro-peace/buddshit-style mindsets in some younger ones stabilized things a bit... but for how long? (Don't tell me US is the same: the transparency with which they wash their dirty laundry in international public waters, and the fact that they have many layers of "social backups" are just two reasons to believe otherwise.)
- toyg 9y ago
  The Japanese would rather kill themselves than defaulting on their debts. Until that holds true, and assuming they don't get attacked militarily, the country will continue to be what it is.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    Most of the holders of Japanese government debt are Japanese citizens, so repudiating the debt is not likely to be a popular move.
paulmd 9y ago
You know what one of the absolute defenses against libel is? The truth. Konami treated Kojima like shit, Kojima left and took most of the talent with him. What Konami has left is a pretty cool engine and a hot IP, no creatives. MGS fans know it and don't respect Konami's next project even a little. Zombie-survival alternate universe, really? In contrast I don't even know what Kojima's next thing is, it'll probably be pretty cool though. Kojima is good at over the top absurd and awesome. Also, it's a fucking travesty that Fox Engine won't be used for anything important ever again, because for an open-world engine it runs like a dream. Too bad the online multiplayer is a non-stop cheatfest.
- robin_reala 9y ago
  Kojima’s next thing is Death Stranding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding
  - bhouston 9y ago
    Can Kojima rein in his perfectionism and get that released before he runs out of money?
    - robin_reala 9y ago
      Realistically?
    - emodendroket 9y ago
      The guy has released quite a few games, so probably.
      - ferdbold 9y ago
        He doesn't have Konami's coffers anymore though.
        emodendroket 9y ago
demarq 9y ago
How I'd love to make some app that would help protect IP workers some way :( This is more of a policy issue, unfortunately.
- legulere 9y ago
  Why does it have to be an app? The obvious way to go for protecting workers is unionisation.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    The idea of replacing a union with an app approaches self-parody.
    - demarq 9y ago
      just going to quote my self here. > This is more of a policy issue, unfortunately.
- sofaofthedamned 9y ago
  Why does everything here require an app, a unicorn and subsequent sale to #insertinternetgianthere ?!
  - RugnirViking 9y ago
    Because, presumably, that is the commenter's line of work. Not everyone is a lawyer/politician/journalist who could stand a chance of helping in a more direct way. The guy is just wishing he could help in the way he knows best
erikb 9y ago
This is why you should take care of your stars well, even if they make weird requests. Konami will probably win the battle, but lose the war for the customer's hearts. In the end just everybody involved loses. If Konami instead supported Kojima, maybe even invest in his company, both could have made loads of money together.
- swang 9y ago
  they only make 2 video games now. the metal gear knockoff and PES. and even though pachinko machines are the butt of people's jokes about konami, they actually don't make as much for konami due to declining revenue (degenerate gamblers)...
  - Fej 9y ago
    And their massive lineup of rhythm games.
hkmurakami 9y ago
Well konami wanted to diversify out of the video game business (for example they run a large chain of sports gyms) so hey they're getting some help in that regard.
grabcocque 9y ago
Seriously, Fuckonami.
naaaaak 9y ago
Companies that do this are screwing themselves hard in the long-term. No one of value will want a job there.
throwaway47861 9y ago
Damn, and I thought I was a vengeful person. Goes to show you once more how many people on positions of power have the emotional intelligence of a bully teenager but they can't be touched.
jpatokal 9y ago
One other thing worth mentioning is that gaming companies work famously punishing hours, Japanese companies work famously punishing hours, so unsurprisingly Japanese gaming companies work really punishing hours... and Konami is infamous even by those standards! https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2015/8/3/9089247/konami-nikkei-report-workplace-culture-metal-gear-solid https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp...
otachack 9y ago
I wish the ex employees of Konami luck. This blacklist behavior will only help in further developing the independent game scene in Japan. We've seen great games in the past from Japan such as Cave Story, La Mulana, Downwell, and also Kickstarter-ish campaigns for spiritual sequels to classic genres. Kojima's name itself carries a ton of industry weight and I'm sure he and his team won't find trouble finding funds and talent for their endeavors as hinted by teasers of his new IP. It's unfortunate that a slew of IPs will go down with Konami, but they haven't been looking great in awhile and this is just a conclusion of the signs in the past. Silent Hill, Metal Gear, Suikoden, ZoE, even those weird late 90s PS1 games like Broken Helix will always be remembered by me.
Kiro 9y ago
Is this a cultural thing? I know a lot of Japanese people and I get the feeling that some things that are completely outrageous in the Western world are not frowned upon in Japan. I can't imagine even the most shady company doing the stuff mentioned under "Persona non grata" in my country without causing a complete shitstorm.
- blazespin 9y ago
  Yes, very cultural. What's not being mentioned, because it's taken for granted is that the CEO to employee salary ratio in Japan is like 16 versus 300 for us. Loyalty to your company is very important, in return the company is pretty loyal to you.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    That's really far less true than it used to be; Japanese companies want to have it both ways, where employees remain as loyal to them as before but they don't return the favor.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
kakarot 9y ago
Konami put out a lot of classics in the 90's that I enjoyed, but after Hideo Kojima's departure there is just no reason to support them as a company. I'm pretty sure they were the reason Project M was canceled, but we'll never really know. They won't be seeing any more of my money.
Pxtl 9y ago
I can't wait for Konami to go bankrupt so that somebody will finally do something with the great stuff they made. How on earth is there not a modern 4-player Contra game?
cavanasm 9y ago
This reminds me of some of the drama surrounding Keiji Inafune (creator of Megaman) leaving Capcom. Not nearly the level of company push back / employment issues, but there was lots of blame slinging on both ends. Then the appearance that Capcom cancelled an in development Megaman game that Inafune reportedly wasn't very involved in just to spite him (which I'm still sad about).
dceddia 9y ago
> In 2014, Konami workers who liked a Facebook post by an ex-Kon saying he started working for a different company were shuffled to different positions. I know it's generally a bad idea to badmouth employers, past or present, on Facebook or other social media... but punishing employees for merely "liking" a post is more excessive than I've heard before. Maybe it's a cultural difference, but it seems very Big Brother of them nonetheless.
mcguire 9y ago
"In April this year, a Kojima Productions executive applied for the company to join ITS Kenpo, a health insurance society for companies in the gaming and internet service industry. Joining such insurance organizations is crucial to employee welfare, but the application was not even accepted. When the executive asked why, he was told by ITS Kenpo that all applications are screened by the board chairman before being reviewed by the board, and it could not show this application to the chairman." I'm sorry, "could not show this application to the chairman"?
- Asooka 9y ago
  It's explained in the article. The chairman is also a chair in Konami. You literally cannot show him the application without ruining your career.
matthewmcg 9y ago
So instead of an "up or out" culture they have an "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right" culture?
digitalzombie 9y ago
> Ex-Kons are not allowed to put their Konami experience on their public resumes. I had a start up that tried to do this a year or so later, after I left the company on bad term mind you. The lead basically tried to bully me. I just up and left on the same day that he tried that. I read this and look around where I'm at, palm trees and beach. Oh right I'm in California. I tried several emails to explain to the lawyer. He made bunch of bs excuses. So I immediately googled for a cease and desist letter and send it to the buddy. He basically asked me if I know who he is. I don't care if your Donald Trump. If Trump couldn't pass the muslim ban good luck with you trying to ~~force~~ coerce me to remove this experience from my linkedin. After that I never hear from the lawyer again or his company again.
- BigChiefSmokem 9y ago
  You did the right thing by leaving the experience on your resume! It's your experience, not theirs. Also by standing up to these bullies in the tech industry who think having lots of brains and very little compassion for others is somehow a divine quality. Trump-like ego-maniacs everywhere I turn in this industry it makes me so sick. Kojima did good by going out on his own and not letting the empty threats of a has-been corporation like Konami shake him from his vision as a legendary creator.
GuB-42 9y ago
The Konami exodus, when people are leaving up, up, down, down, left, right, left and right.
drawkbox 9y ago
This could just be my experience but one thing I have learned working in games is that Asian companies can be really authoritarian to their employees. I have experienced this with Japan, South Korea and China. Game companies are very secretive and authoritarian with their workers to begin with but culturally it seems more acceptable in teams I worked with in Asia. A team I worked with in South Korea regularly slept at the office because the Korean lead was there slave driving the crunch. South Korea in itself is hard to even launch a game there because they demand percentages and you must have internal teams/representatives, similar with China. China team, the employees were always in a fear state of making the boss angry or doing the wrong thing. I noticed that it led to releases just to meet dates even if the work was incomplete just so the boss would not get mad. Working with them the devs told me they regularly ship when not complete just to satisfy dates and it led to many issues especially at hand off points because they knew it wasn't fully functioning. I think overall companies in games think they can get away with this ownership/authoritarian type attitude anyways, but it might be easier in Asian cultures where there is a more authoritarian lean.

391 points by slantyyz 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

I love how the society we currently live in places so much confidence in the statement that "corporations = efficient, rational market actors"... and yet here we are, slaves to whims of a few thousand people globally who control 35 trillion dollars in assets. This virtually guarantees that if you want to make a liveable income, you either need to work for or sell to a truly psychotic group of individuals who control an arbitrarly large portion of wealth thanks to a host of monetary and legal policies.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Are there any other ways to effectively organize an economy? This subthread doesn't seem too promising, but I'd genuinely like to know.
- visarga 9y ago
  Yeah, communism, but it only works in post scarcity domains, such as open source software. If there is scarcity there will be selfishness.
  - thehardsphere 9y ago
    I don't think what happens in open source software is accurately described as "communism" in any sense of that word. Especially considering that OSS in practice is a scheme for corporations (including those in direct competition with each other) to pool resources and share their research and development costs.
    - Iridiumkoivu 9y ago
      I agree with your comment. We have to keep in mind that "communism" is a word for utopian society (e.g. no state, no "money", no classes, and common ownership over the means of production) which is the end goal of "socialists" stemming from "Marxism" which is a socio-economic analysis of class relations. The core of "socialism" is the question about ownership of the means of production (as explained by Marx). The chief reason for why free and open source software isn't "communism" in any sense of the package of things that word contains is that in practise it almost always leads to a very controlled extreme planned centralised collectivist systems. Free and open software development and communities on the other hand are based on extremely individualistic non-centralised non-planned and non-governed system. If free and open software was inherently "Communist" or "Marxist", then we'd have "ONE FREE OS, ONE FREE DESKTOP, AND ONE FREE DESIGN". Instead we have several free software operating systems, dozens of competing desktop environments, and uncountable number of designs for every individual taste. If you want to know more about this point of view, I recommend you read the "Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich von Hayek. It's true that in free and open source software we people share the code and tools (i.e. the means of production) to some degree. However we people still inherently govern the domains of our work and we get rewarded for the work that gets done. Instead of "money", hackers often get rewarded e.g. by "fame". Eric S. Raymond explains quite well in his book Cathedral and the Bazaar how this works and in great detail too. But most importantly there is no central planner which would dictate how things work and coordinate the operations. If some guy doesn't like how a free and open software project is being developed, he can fork the fuck out of it and create a competing project. And this makes it sound more like anarcho-capitalism than anything else. We don't have "centralised state" that would set the framework where code is allowed to happen and "market of ideas" operates. This fits into agenda of our current corporatist society quite well and even companies which are in direct competition can benefit from it pouring resources to projects of mutual interest. It's true that when we inspect how free and open software projects are developed, we at times counter cases of central-planner but often we notice that this entity is restricted by the pressure from the users and the fear of having project forked and lost "fame" / "reputation". This is basically why "dictators" that lead their projects aren't sole rulers of their domains. Most commonly we see governing bodies of few selected individuals aka. oligarchies that manage the free and open software project.
- andy_ppp 9y ago
  I actually like the idea that the workforce own businesses instead of Capital owning them. There is no reason not to have cooperatives run everything, however often successful co-ops tend to float because the workforce can see a big payoff. Greed doesn't need to define the reason why businesses are created though. Maybe instead of pay defining where you are within an organisation it's how much vote you get in the business. And obviously you can engage in peer to peer performance review system like Valve. To be honest I'd only ask one question; How much do you want to work with X again? 0 - 10.
  - a_t48 9y ago
    The Valve system just leads to cliques and making it tough to get things done.
    - andy_ppp 9y ago
      Almost like all big organisations.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - tajen 9y ago
    All of this is possible in the current economy – Many companies are founded by employees. However, I'm personally comvinced they are not efficient, neither in decision-making nor in usage of the workforce. So what happens to them, and why aren't they the most common form of employment? Maybe some don't keep their form of cooperative decision-making, maybe others never make it big on the market, maybe creators of such companies don't intend to become AirBnb or Amazon and prefer a lifestyle business – all in all, traditional companies still dominate them.
    - Asooka 9y ago
      I think it's because being a cooperative is not a stable state. You can go cooperative->traditional, but it's much harder to transition from traditional->cooperative. Ultimately, a hierarchical society is instinctively easy to grasp, while a more fluid mostly-equal one is not. People still instinctively understand hierarchies better than full-on democracy.
- elihu 9y ago
  We could mostly stick with the regulated market system that a majority of industrialized nations have now, but with higher taxes on investment income and inheritance, and more robust social services to prevent wealth from accumulating to handful of people. It might also help to have stronger unions and more businesses structured as worker-owned co-ops, public benefit corporations, and non-profits.
  - tajen 9y ago
    What do you think about France? It looks like a good, first approximation of your proposal, many people defend worker-owned businesses here, "service public citoyen" (public benefit corporations), it's difficult to amass wealth (the only rich are from inheritance) and would unionize the hell against powerful corporations if Apple were born here. Drawback: We don't have Apple, we have DailyMotion and people don't aim to become huge enough to compete against Silicon Valley startups. I don't like being entrepreneur in this context personally, but the startup ecosystem is thriving in Paris and Lyon and I sure hope the current generation is about to issue some major players. I personally fail to see how they can be profitable with our tax levels, social obligations and regulations, but it may happen. List of hot startups in France: http://www.eu-startups.com/2017/02/10-french-startups-to-look-out-for-in-2017/ http://www.eu-startups.com/2017/02/10-french-startups-to-loo...
    - elihu 9y ago
      I don't know enough about France to have an opinion one way or another (I visited once for a few days back in 2000), but what you say sounds mostly good. From a startup perspective, I think complex regulations are a bigger impediment than taxes; any company that starts as a couple people in a garage shouldn't have to be experts in corporate law in addition to whatever problem they're trying to solve. I expect in order to have a successful environment for startups to happen, you need network effects of smart people congregating in one place and be a place where creative people would want to live. Having good universities really helps. It seems like France should be able to supply those things, but as I said, I don't have specific recent knowledge about what France is like these days.
- SapphireSun 9y ago
  The extractive nature of business can't be fixed without changing things more fundamentally, but basic income or another strong safety net combined with free college education and health care makes labor participation much less coercive. If you can say no to a bad deal, the ideals of the free market are realized in much greater force. Notably, we often respect this in our colleagues. We lionize "fuck you money" and appreciate when our friends have earned their way into the ability to act according to their inclinations. However, at least on this board, I think there is an over emphasis on needing to earn or otherwise deserve that bare level of respect. Workers saying no in greater numbers provides stronger checks on corporate behavior. A sibling comment discusses worker owned businesses, which is a stronger form of this.
- homulilly 9y ago
  I'm a big fan of the idea of having business owned by their employees instead of a handful of shareholders.
  - sofaofthedamned 9y ago
    John Lewis Partnership in the UK have this model.
    - walshemj 9y ago
      Up to a point the outsourced cleaners are no longer partners for example.
  - lmm 9y ago
    In practice that tends to mean concentrating power in the hands of a single presidential leader (since employees are less well-organized than shareholders, and more likely to have day jobs) and/or allowing unprofitable divisions to drag the whole enterprise down long after they should've been shuttered. It has its upsides (at a minimum it tends to lead to a better level of basic decency in working conditions) but it's not a panacea.
- salesguy222 9y ago
  When the Fed stops dispersing cheap money to banks, who disperse it to publicly traded companies... and when the "regulators" and "prosecutors" and "judges" aren't vacation pals with the Fortune 500 CEOs... then maybe we will have some kind of a true free market, and not just an illusion of one run by the American Corporate Mafia :) All businesses in America are fighting a zero sum game. Values and ethics are chucked out the window once you grow past Mojang's size. Out goes the employee ownership and work-life balance, in comes the desparation to grow into a monopoly. Wall St is a knife fight in my opinion. There will always be a competitor more desperate than you to win, and the market will reward them for it.
eltoozero 9y ago
Maybe start a corporation capable of sustaining a couple hundred individuals then review your comment. Source: I've been self-employed and incorporated for nearly a decade, presently working up to employee #3.
- salesguy222 9y ago
  I would love to, but that doesn't negate my statement that not all corporations are logical and efficient actors in the market place. As a result, too many humans on this earth will have to jump through the stupid and wasteful hoops set up by the CEO of a company that receives cheap money (indirectly) from the Fed. So the next time you are working unpaid overtime and planning the CEO's first class flights to a "client meeting" that is really just a Wall St funded vacation for him...
Quarrelsome 9y ago
> I love how the society we currently live in places so much confidence in the statement that "corporations = efficient, rational market actors"... That's the lie. Its always been the case that a free market needs regulation to prevent it turning into a feudal state. Its just that wannabe feudal states have an interest in making the population think that regulation is bad and in the US at least there is less regulation on political lobbying than there should be. The capitalist and free market mantra is correct but without a regulation and legal arm restraining its worst excess it breeds corruption and corruption is a concern of every system.
- salesguy222 9y ago
  Yup! I am mostly in agreement. What is scary, I'd say, is that we do have many regulations and legal checks and prosecutors and laws and so on and so forth here... ... they just aren't enforced at all on the big dogs who are doing all the crazy shit. You have to be as wreckless as Enron to even get a taste of post-hoc legal smackdown, and even then, the damage is still done.

zitterbewegung 9y ago

I think this will backfire and just make Death Stranding and Kohjima more popular. As a developer Konami is really struggling and I wouldn't be suprised that it closed down soon or got consolidated .

grawlinson 9y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the assumption that Konami shuttered all their console games to focus on pachinko machines because the profit margins are just too delicious to pass up.
- sythe2o0 9y ago
  They're developing another game with the engine used for MGSV, but you could account that to just trying to recoup costs involved in making that engine. Otherwise I don't know of other console or pc game projects of theirs.
  - thirdsun 9y ago
    As far as I know there's another MGS spin off they are working on and they continue developing and releasing their annual Pro Evolution Soccer. With the latter my guess is they want a piece of the money-making pie that is Ultimate Team and works so well for EA Sports' FIFA series.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - intoverflow2 9y ago
    > Otherwise I don't know of other console or pc game projects of theirs. They don't need to, Pachinko (their newer machines use fox engine it seems) exists.
- Steko 9y ago
  The article says they focus on mobile after printing money with Dragon Collection franchise.

kazinator 9y ago

That's crazy. Ok, "you can't put on your resume you worked here or we will take you to court." The judge will only want to know one thing: is it true whether or not that person worked for Konami. Is there no paper trail to substantiate that? Contracts? Did they have no signed contracts, and get paid in cash?

kbenson 9y ago
My guess is that there's an overly broad NDA involved, and some enterprising Konami lawyer figured out it can apply to divulging that you were employed there at all.
- kazinator 9y ago
  Konami == KOnNA baka-na shachou-ha, MIta koto nai! こんな馬鹿な社長は、見たことない。 :)
- labster 9y ago
  You can bypass the NDA by doing: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → Ⓑ Ⓐ Start
Asooka 9y ago
Interesting if you can dodge this. "Worked on a tactical espionage action game for major consoles"?

lazugod 9y ago

Are these actions legal in Japan?

wapz 9y ago
I work for a Japanese company. Even if something is illegal in Japan it still happens. One particular thing is unpaid overtime. Most employees are hourly and they can be "forced" to work overtime for 50+ hours/week (all the time) without overtime pay. If they bring it up they will get "relocated" or just get harassed the entire time they're there until they quit. If they bring it to the government work agency (hello work) the company will deny the hours and say it was all voluntary. I have been told this personally by hello work. Also, I only have experience in one Japanese company so surely this does not occur at all companies.
- wst_ 9y ago
  I am sure there are companies like this. Yet, I also see a wind of change. I see Japanese who leave on time. Strangely enough, I also see foreigners who stay late. Above mentioned voluntarism, though, is very difficult to explain even by Japanese themselves. Many of them stay long and couldn't tell you why. It's not that simple. It is entire culture, ethos of group member (not necessary an employee), who works hard for the sake of a group.

sillysaurus3 9y ago

One thing we're overlooking is that even if these actions are illegal, employees are rarely in a position to do anything about it. The power asymmetry is vast. Most employees don't have savings, especially in the game industry, and they'd regret spending any of it on courts. Could the courts even do much? Having newspapers write an article about it is probably one of the more effective ways of dealing with this.

visarga 9y ago
If the courts function like police in Japan, then there is no hope. If police arrests you it's 99% sure they will get a conviction. It's a matter of saving face for them to convict everyone they arrest. You are judged by the cop, then rubber stamp sentenced by the judge.
- glandium 9y ago
  Arguably, the flip side is that you're not prosecuted unless they're near certain they can nail you.
  - mc32 9y ago
    I think that is of very little consolation for two reasons: 1. People don't get murdered, instead they die of "heart attacks," or they "accidentally fell down a stairwell" and the perp goes free. 2. They can keep you detained without representation for quite some time, in the meantime you are worn down physically and psychologically till you just want to make it "go away" so you sign a "confession" letter.
    - bitwize 9y ago
      You seem to be confusing Japan with the United States.
      - mc32 9y ago
        I'd suggest you read up about how the legal system works in Japan before you blurt out a facile quip: Confessions[1] and other unpleasantness[2]. [1]http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/japan-forced-confessions-wrong-convictions-161010084400226.html http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/japan-forc... [2]https://gaijinass.com/2011/01/02/7-brutal-realities-regarding-arrest-in-japan/ https://gaijinass.com/2011/01/02/7-brutal-realities-regardin...

maruhan2 9y ago

It doesn't matter if it's legal or not. If someone is gonna apply to another game company and the company sees konami in the resume, they could call up konami and ask about them. Then, Konami will give a bad review. That alone is a risk employees do not want to take

anilgulecha 9y ago
Not if as a policy Konami will always give bad reviews. Then pretty much everyone will ignore this, and lean on other background checks. Working at a company is a fact, and can be stated as such. There seems to be no legal basis to stop their name being put on the resume.
zamalek 9y ago
> Konami will give a bad review. In some countries this is illegal - the worst you can say about a person is "no comment."
- teraflop 9y ago
  Which would those be, out of curiosity? I know it's a widespread urban legend in the US that employers can't give negative references, but I've never heard of a country where it's actually true.
  - dom0 9y ago
    Germany, for example.
    - amagasaki 9y ago
      Well, at least in reference letters, former employees can be criticised quite well. Mostly by omitting certain words. I believe most employers have practice in reading between the lines. edit: I always thought this is just culturally. I have no idea, but I don't believe there are any laws that forbid telling the truth about former employees.

spamlord 9y ago

Hopefully this is included in Jim Sterling's next 'Fuck Konami News' segment, because fuck Konami.

Illniyar 9y ago

That seems very counterproductive to me, who will want to go work in Konami once this behavior is known? This will probably severely hamper their ability to recruit, especially recruit experienced people. Am I missing something? Perhaps it's more common in Japan's video game industry to work in the same place for life?

watwut 9y ago
> Perhaps it's more common in Japan's video game industry to work in the same place for life? Yes: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/
ajdlinux 9y ago
It's much more common in all Japanese industries to work in the same place for life.
hkmurakami 9y ago
Actually the video game industry is one of the more labor liquid industries in Japan. Teams leave, producers with track records go solo, key guys get poached, etc. Definitely more liquid than manufacturing, finance, insurance, IT consulting, publishing, aerospace, shosha, semiconductors, etc.
- wapz 9y ago
  Do you have examples of key guys getting poached in the Japanese market? From my experience here most people tend to stay a long time or move on their own will (not as often as US IMO though)
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    The Tactics Orge team from Quest getting poached by Square back around 1995.
toyg 9y ago
It's Japan. There isn't real competition for talent - one is hired out of school, depending on the school he attended, and that's pretty much it. "Abandoning" a company is seen as suspiciously disloyal. In exchange for that, most companies reward employees with jobs for life, seniority-based career progression, housing and health perks, vacation trips and so on. IT and gaming are more dynamic than others but the mainstream attitude is still the zaibatsu one.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

afinlayson 9y ago

Funny gamers are blacklisting Konami, for putting out an unfinished game like MGS5, firing Kojima and trying to ruin his legacy with Metal Gear Survivor....

jakebasile 9y ago
I can never forgive them for what they did to Kojima. That man is a treasure and helped create some of my most formative games. I'd say I won't buy any more of their games but they don't seem interested in making any.
- intoverflow2 9y ago
  It's awful his IP (Not just MGS but ZOE, Snatcher and Policenauts) will be locked up in a company with zero respect for it. But the man is so prolific and Kojima Productions is clearly serious business, it'll probably mean his next projects have the potential to be his best yet.
CJefferson 9y ago
What do you mean by blacklisting? MGS5 was the best selling game in the series.
- Iridiumkoivu 9y ago
  Wait for the sales figures of the next Metal Gear and PES games. They're likely going to be absolutely awful. MGS5 was worked by Kojima and even with all the trouble with Konami, people wanted to show support for Kojima. Gamers did discuss about boycotting the game but since it would have been a disservice for both Kojima and gamers that boycott didn't materialise. However when Konami for example removed "A Hideo Kojima Game" text from the MGS5 there was a protest by gamers to get it back there.
emodendroket 9y ago
How do you boycott a product that isn't being made?

nnq 9y ago

Mostly offtopic, but: Is it just me, or based on both politics, social dynamics and economic indicators, Japan is economically speaking a house of cards waiting to fucking fall apart in a huuuuge crysis?! I mean, I guess that aged population coupled with pro-peace/buddshit-style mindsets in some younger ones stabilized things a bit... but for how long? (Don't tell me US is the same: the transparency with which they wash their dirty laundry in international public waters, and the fact that they have many layers of "social backups" are just two reasons to believe otherwise.)

toyg 9y ago
The Japanese would rather kill themselves than defaulting on their debts. Until that holds true, and assuming they don't get attacked militarily, the country will continue to be what it is.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  Most of the holders of Japanese government debt are Japanese citizens, so repudiating the debt is not likely to be a popular move.

paulmd 9y ago

You know what one of the absolute defenses against libel is? The truth. Konami treated Kojima like shit, Kojima left and took most of the talent with him. What Konami has left is a pretty cool engine and a hot IP, no creatives. MGS fans know it and don't respect Konami's next project even a little. Zombie-survival alternate universe, really? In contrast I don't even know what Kojima's next thing is, it'll probably be pretty cool though. Kojima is good at over the top absurd and awesome. Also, it's a fucking travesty that Fox Engine won't be used for anything important ever again, because for an open-world engine it runs like a dream. Too bad the online multiplayer is a non-stop cheatfest.

robin_reala 9y ago
Kojima’s next thing is Death Stranding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding
- bhouston 9y ago
  Can Kojima rein in his perfectionism and get that released before he runs out of money?
  - robin_reala 9y ago
    Realistically?
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    The guy has released quite a few games, so probably.
    - ferdbold 9y ago
      He doesn't have Konami's coffers anymore though.
      - emodendroket 9y ago

demarq 9y ago

How I'd love to make some app that would help protect IP workers some way :( This is more of a policy issue, unfortunately.

legulere 9y ago
Why does it have to be an app? The obvious way to go for protecting workers is unionisation.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  The idea of replacing a union with an app approaches self-parody.
  - demarq 9y ago
    just going to quote my self here. > This is more of a policy issue, unfortunately.
sofaofthedamned 9y ago
Why does everything here require an app, a unicorn and subsequent sale to #insertinternetgianthere ?!
- RugnirViking 9y ago
  Because, presumably, that is the commenter's line of work. Not everyone is a lawyer/politician/journalist who could stand a chance of helping in a more direct way. The guy is just wishing he could help in the way he knows best

erikb 9y ago

This is why you should take care of your stars well, even if they make weird requests. Konami will probably win the battle, but lose the war for the customer's hearts. In the end just everybody involved loses. If Konami instead supported Kojima, maybe even invest in his company, both could have made loads of money together.

swang 9y ago
they only make 2 video games now. the metal gear knockoff and PES. and even though pachinko machines are the butt of people's jokes about konami, they actually don't make as much for konami due to declining revenue (degenerate gamblers)...
- Fej 9y ago
  And their massive lineup of rhythm games.

hkmurakami 9y ago

Well konami wanted to diversify out of the video game business (for example they run a large chain of sports gyms) so hey they're getting some help in that regard.

grabcocque 9y ago

Seriously, Fuckonami.

naaaaak 9y ago

Companies that do this are screwing themselves hard in the long-term. No one of value will want a job there.

throwaway47861 9y ago

Damn, and I thought I was a vengeful person. Goes to show you once more how many people on positions of power have the emotional intelligence of a bully teenager but they can't be touched.

jpatokal 9y ago

One other thing worth mentioning is that gaming companies work famously punishing hours, Japanese companies work famously punishing hours, so unsurprisingly Japanese gaming companies work really punishing hours... and Konami is infamous even by those standards! https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2015/8/3/9089247/konami-nikkei-report-workplace-culture-metal-gear-solid https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp...

otachack 9y ago

I wish the ex employees of Konami luck. This blacklist behavior will only help in further developing the independent game scene in Japan. We've seen great games in the past from Japan such as Cave Story, La Mulana, Downwell, and also Kickstarter-ish campaigns for spiritual sequels to classic genres. Kojima's name itself carries a ton of industry weight and I'm sure he and his team won't find trouble finding funds and talent for their endeavors as hinted by teasers of his new IP. It's unfortunate that a slew of IPs will go down with Konami, but they haven't been looking great in awhile and this is just a conclusion of the signs in the past. Silent Hill, Metal Gear, Suikoden, ZoE, even those weird late 90s PS1 games like Broken Helix will always be remembered by me.

Kiro 9y ago

Is this a cultural thing? I know a lot of Japanese people and I get the feeling that some things that are completely outrageous in the Western world are not frowned upon in Japan. I can't imagine even the most shady company doing the stuff mentioned under "Persona non grata" in my country without causing a complete shitstorm.

blazespin 9y ago
Yes, very cultural. What's not being mentioned, because it's taken for granted is that the CEO to employee salary ratio in Japan is like 16 versus 300 for us. Loyalty to your company is very important, in return the company is pretty loyal to you.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  That's really far less true than it used to be; Japanese companies want to have it both ways, where employees remain as loyal to them as before but they don't return the favor.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

kakarot 9y ago

Konami put out a lot of classics in the 90's that I enjoyed, but after Hideo Kojima's departure there is just no reason to support them as a company. I'm pretty sure they were the reason Project M was canceled, but we'll never really know. They won't be seeing any more of my money.

Pxtl 9y ago

I can't wait for Konami to go bankrupt so that somebody will finally do something with the great stuff they made. How on earth is there not a modern 4-player Contra game?

cavanasm 9y ago

This reminds me of some of the drama surrounding Keiji Inafune (creator of Megaman) leaving Capcom. Not nearly the level of company push back / employment issues, but there was lots of blame slinging on both ends. Then the appearance that Capcom cancelled an in development Megaman game that Inafune reportedly wasn't very involved in just to spite him (which I'm still sad about).

dceddia 9y ago

> In 2014, Konami workers who liked a Facebook post by an ex-Kon saying he started working for a different company were shuffled to different positions. I know it's generally a bad idea to badmouth employers, past or present, on Facebook or other social media... but punishing employees for merely "liking" a post is more excessive than I've heard before. Maybe it's a cultural difference, but it seems very Big Brother of them nonetheless.

mcguire 9y ago

"In April this year, a Kojima Productions executive applied for the company to join ITS Kenpo, a health insurance society for companies in the gaming and internet service industry. Joining such insurance organizations is crucial to employee welfare, but the application was not even accepted. When the executive asked why, he was told by ITS Kenpo that all applications are screened by the board chairman before being reviewed by the board, and it could not show this application to the chairman." I'm sorry, "could not show this application to the chairman"?

Asooka 9y ago
It's explained in the article. The chairman is also a chair in Konami. You literally cannot show him the application without ruining your career.

matthewmcg 9y ago

So instead of an "up or out" culture they have an "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right" culture?

digitalzombie 9y ago

> Ex-Kons are not allowed to put their Konami experience on their public resumes. I had a start up that tried to do this a year or so later, after I left the company on bad term mind you. The lead basically tried to bully me. I just up and left on the same day that he tried that. I read this and look around where I'm at, palm trees and beach. Oh right I'm in California. I tried several emails to explain to the lawyer. He made bunch of bs excuses. So I immediately googled for a cease and desist letter and send it to the buddy. He basically asked me if I know who he is. I don't care if your Donald Trump. If Trump couldn't pass the muslim ban good luck with you trying to ~~force~~ coerce me to remove this experience from my linkedin. After that I never hear from the lawyer again or his company again.

BigChiefSmokem 9y ago
You did the right thing by leaving the experience on your resume! It's your experience, not theirs. Also by standing up to these bullies in the tech industry who think having lots of brains and very little compassion for others is somehow a divine quality. Trump-like ego-maniacs everywhere I turn in this industry it makes me so sick. Kojima did good by going out on his own and not letting the empty threats of a has-been corporation like Konami shake him from his vision as a legendary creator.

GuB-42 9y ago

The Konami exodus, when people are leaving up, up, down, down, left, right, left and right.

drawkbox 9y ago

This could just be my experience but one thing I have learned working in games is that Asian companies can be really authoritarian to their employees. I have experienced this with Japan, South Korea and China. Game companies are very secretive and authoritarian with their workers to begin with but culturally it seems more acceptable in teams I worked with in Asia. A team I worked with in South Korea regularly slept at the office because the Korean lead was there slave driving the crunch. South Korea in itself is hard to even launch a game there because they demand percentages and you must have internal teams/representatives, similar with China. China team, the employees were always in a fear state of making the boss angry or doing the wrong thing. I noticed that it led to releases just to meet dates even if the work was incomplete just so the boss would not get mad. Working with them the devs told me they regularly ship when not complete just to satisfy dates and it led to many issues especially at hand off points because they knew it wasn't fully functioning. I think overall companies in games think they can get away with this ownership/authoritarian type attitude anyways, but it might be easier in Asian cultures where there is a more authoritarian lean.