Thirty-one mobile gaming apps will be pulled out by Konami in Japan on September 10. These titles will be removed from the Apple online store because of compatibility issues. Konami had been in a bad light lately, as it had canceled games, cut off principal designers, and experienced workers' distrust because of its alleged lack of transparency.
According to the Games Industry, "At present only the Japanese versions are included in the cull, though only a handful of the 31 affected products have been released in English - Metal Gear Solid Touch, for example. The process will begin on September 10, with the closures taking place over the following two weeks."
Konami assured that English versions will not be affected. This is likely, as stated in a Game Politics report, because most of the 31 titles being shut down were not released outside of Japan.
Apparently, all of these are not free-to-play games but premium-priced apps. It really seemed that Konami is gearing on developing more free-to-play games, as these bring in some good money to the company. Konami's two most successful mobile games, Powerful Pro Baseball and World Soccer Collection S, are both free.
Below is the full list of these apps, and can be found originally on Dr. Sekan Toto's site:
- DanceDanceRevolution S (JP)
- DanceDanceRevolution S＋(JP)
- Field Prowlers POLICE RUSH! (JP)
- FroggerPad(JP)
- METAL GEAR SOLID TOUCH (JP)
- SILENT HILL The Escape (JP)
- SILENT SCOPE (JP)
- Uhi Uhi Cannonball
- Elemental Monster TD
- Crayon Physics Deluxe
- Charlene's Beachside Solitaire
- Table Game Selection
- Knights Of The Phantom Castle
- Tomena Sanner -TOUCH
- Neosamegame
- Hyper Sports Winter
- Hyper Sports (Track-And-Field)
- Bomberman TOUCH -The Legend of Mystic Bomb-
- Bomberman Chains
- Bomberman Dojo
- LovePlus iM
- LovePlus iN
- LovePlus iR
- Hanafudakyou
- Kyoufu No Hyakumonogatari
- Grappling Action - Moon Dancer
- World RPS Janken
- Chikuwa Ninja
- Mahjong Police
- Haunted Pics
- Shooting Watch
This decision by Konami is no coincidence, as the company might be cooking up something in the near future - social games, perhaps? Although the company had been known for video and arcade games, it experienced a 66% slump in that aspect over the past 10 years, as stated in a Nikkei Asian Review report on August 13. Surprisingly, of the total game sales, 40% came from social games, thanks to the success of its smartphone-based game Dragon Collection.
According to its founder and chairman, Kagemasa Kozuki, "We are living in a social game age; make more efforts to create social games." With that said, Konami might be turning in that direction, then.
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