Konami Mistreatment and Abuse of Staff Surfaces

[VinWarrior]

A new report has surfaced showing that major game developer and publisher Konami abuses and mistreats its employees and staff.

 

Konami is a major game development and publishing company that is famous for multiple legendary titles like Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Castlevania. Lately, the company has come under fire for multiple business decisions such as the confrontations with Hideo Kojima, it's mobile game focus, and mistreatment of both its franchisees and employees. A new report from GameSpot.com showcases employee abuse in the company. Insider reports show that staff of Konami are not allowed to use personal emails, and require emails using a collection of numbers and letters, being changed every few months. Even worse, lunch breaks are tied to cards, and when an employer goes past this time, they are publically ousted and shamed in the company. Cameras are also littered around the building to monitor employee activity and assure they are doing their required jobs. Employees who are not seen as fit to expectation will be forced other trivial work, such as cleaning and security guard duty. Along with the information of employee abuse, other development details were listed, such as the monetary amount being poured into this year's Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the cancellation of two other franchises. Konami has not responded as of yet to the allocations. 

 

 

All images and information from Konami and GameSpot.

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[Caboose The Ace]

And I thought slavery was abolished in most countries......
 
Guess I was wrong..... Seriously though this article is too nicely written. 
 
Firstly, fun fact time! Metal Gear Solid 5’s development costs have surpassed 10 billion yen/US$80 million). Yep.... that is a lot of cash.
 
Here is one thing Ek's article missed. "That one former employee, upon announcing on Facebook that they were leaving Konami and had got a new job elsewhere, had their post monitored. Nikkei says remaining Konami staff who “liked” the post were all reshuffled within the company" < From the Kotaku article.
 
And be reshuffled, these guys when from games devs to glorified janitors.
 
Well I cant say I'm surprised Kojima is leaving and this is surly a good time for him to leave. Too bad it looks like the MGS franchise is dead after this. I cannot expect the franchises quality to continue with its employees being treated as machines/slaves.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Big_Boss

[VinWarrior]

 

Firstly, fun fact time! Metal Gear Solid 5’s development costs have surpassed 10 billion yen/US$80 million). Yep.... that is a lot of cash.

 

Here is one thing Ek's article missed. "That one former employee, upon announcing on Facebook that they were leaving Konami and had got a new job elsewhere, had their post monitored. Nikkei says remaining Konami staff who “liked” the post were all reshuffled within the company" < From the Kotaku article.

 

For your fun fact, I'd like to point out this was mentioned in the article, despite the price not being listed, because it is a side-fact. The main point was the exposition of Konami's mistreatment of its staff.

 

And it's not what my article missed, it's what the GameSpot article failed to mention. Unless you meant "Ek's article" as in the article linked by myself, in which case, you're right on the money. Also, I don't go to Kotaku, and I'd recommend you not go there either.

[Caboose The Ace]

^
 
Now I'm not entirely sure on this but I believe that kotaku was the first news outlet to report on this with the others naturally following.
 
Generally kotaku isn't that bad, granted a lot of their articles are nothing but rumors but a lot of them are actually true, like the Fallout 4 casting call thing.
 
So I wouldn't cross kotaku completely  out of your source list.

[Zaku_John]

That's awful. Hopefully these employees can find better work somewhere else. I'd love to see Kojima work at Platinum. Metal Gear Rising was one of my favorite games from last gen. I'd love to see what else he and Hideki Kamiya can create.

[D-38 Boss]

Most people always made fun of Kojima, because since Metal Gear Solid 2, he has been trying to leave the series behind, but always works on the next game. It's not him, so much as Konami tying him down with various legal crap. I'm not sure of the specifics, but I give him credit for not actively trying to run the series into the ground.