Konami Turned Down New Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Bomberman, and Contra Games

A recent Polygon article went in-depth on what it was like to work at the original Konami-backed Kojima Productions; not the current independent incarnation that’s producing Death Stranding, but the US branch of Konami that developed Metal Gear Online. According to former developers from the L.A. studio, when the writing was seemingly on the wall concerning Kojima Productions Los Angeles’ ultimate 2015 demise, they attempted to “keep this thing alive” by making a series of pitches utilizing iconic Konami IPs. Amongst them were the likes of a new Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Bomberman, and Contra.

No details were offered regarding the context of those latter three video game pitches, but two interesting potential Metal Gear spin-offs were outlined in a more thorough fashion. The first would’ve cast players as a young version of series protagonist Solid Snake and had them embark on a “parkour-focused origin story.” That might sound like a pretty big departure for the series (mostly because it would’ve been), but you haven’t heard anything yet.

The other pitch related to a potential Metal Gear multiplayer online battle area (MOBA) game. It was planned to take place inside the head of original Metal Gear Solid antagonist Psycho Mantis ⁠— you know, the guy who could read your memory card and make your controller vibrate. This conceit would’ve served to contextualize all of the series’ disparate characters coming together in one place, as well as fighting alongside enemies or against allies.

It’s said that some employees wanted to “shoot for the moon,” whereas others thought it’d be better to start small with pitches. Regardless, studio head Tom Sekine posed the team’s ideas to Konami executives in Japan and got nowhere. The company’s hardline response to the potential projects was said to be something along the lines of “No, forget it, nope, no.”

While Konami may not have been interested, many fans will almost certainly be disappointed to learn what might’ve already come to fruition had the company been more receptive back in late 2015.

[Source: Polygon]