Critical Contributing Factors to Konami’s Success
Konami was initially “a jukebox rental and repair shop in Osaka” (Konami – entertainment company, n.d., para. 1).
When the advent of arcade machines happened in the early 70s, its founders decided to enter the digital entertainment industry with several titles (Aruru-san, 2022).
The arcade machines’ audience found Konami’s first games entertaining, which led to financial numbers rising for the company and the emergence of its first franchises.
During the three decades of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, Konami launched and developed many game series for both public and home gaming platforms in Japan and the United States.
The company has always taken considered the technological innovations in the industries of its interest, aimed at cooperation with leading brands popular among gamers, and was aware of their opinions, preferences, and expectations (Aruru-san, 2022).
Analysis of Critical Factors of Konami’s Success
The decision of Konami’s founders to enter the entertainment software market was ideal and most timely in terms of global technological and cultural conditions back then. The bottom line is that the time they became game developers coincides chronologically with “the ‘golden age’ of arcade games, when this type of entertainment was a superpower in popular culture” (Northfield, 2018, para. 4). Moreover, there was a “decrease in the cost of computing technology” (Northfield, 2018, para. 4).
The existence of projects such as Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Beatmania, and Dance Dance Revolution indicate that Konami’s employees, at least the top management, were given creative freedom.
The further development of these games into multi-platform successful franchises and series shows that those employees responsible for the development and vision of the company realistically and qualitatively assessed the markets, technologies, and audiences with which they commercially interact.
Critical Contributing Factors of Konami’s Fall
The early and mid-10s were the downfall of Konami, during which the company made critical and highly damaging managerial mistakes. These include announcements of the mobile entertainment sub-industry as central to the organization and the termination of partnerships with several essential creative employees such as Hideo Kojima (Aroged, 2022). In addition, all their novel games have been exceptionally financially unsuccessful, both comparatively and absolutely, as no unique vision was included in them.
Analysis of Critical Factors of Konami’s Fall
The factors presented and described earlier make it clear why Konami is now in a poor financial, reputational and organizational position. The current decisions of the former Japanese game development leader are the opposite of the market strategy of the 80s and 90s that made them successful. This once prospering game-making business entity needs an internal restructuring, which is in process, Aroged (2022) says.
References
Aroged. (2022). The decline of Konami: Why are you doing this to players? Aroged. Web.
Aruru-san. (2022). Konami. Giant Bomb.
Konami – entertainment company. (n.d.). SuccessStory.
Northfield, R. (2018). Gaming’s golden age: Top 10 retro-vintage arcade classics. E&T Magazine.