Topic: Koji Igarashi Leaves Konami, Founding New Studio, Metroidvania GDC

[Viskod]

He's not rebelling though. He's 46 and after a long and successful career Konami he figured if he was ever going to try to do something on his own it had to be now, because like he said, right now he appears to have fan support and he wants to strike while its there before those voices go quiet.

Fan support and Inafune's success so far (his Soul Sacrifice is No.4 on those charts) made Igarashi believe now is the right time so its doubly important that these same fans don't let him down. I'd hate for the guy to leave Konami and end up failing in his first solo endeavour.

[Nagumo]

Yeah, but Konami apparently demanded he made social games while that wasn't what he wanted to do, hence he set up his own company. I still stand by my analogy.

[Viskod]

That is incorrect. As per the Kotaku interview.

I remembered hearing a rumor that Iga was working on Konami's social games, which were increasingly profitable for the company. Iga didn't think this was necessarily a bad thing. "I don't dislike social games," he said, adding that he requested to be shifted into the social games section. With social games being incredibly popular in Japan and seeming to eclipse traditional games, Iga thought there was something he could learn and that social games would be a good platform for quirky, unusual titles.

And since social games are so profitable in Japan, the industry is focusing on them. "I think there will be even more of a shift towards social games in Japan," said Iga, putting down his cup of coffee. "And at Konami as well."

[Nagumo]

The previous page has a quote where he says Konami denied his social game ideas at least three times because they felt too much like core games. He explicitly said that was one of his motivations to leave.

[X]

I guess it's worth noting that the failure of Lament and Curse probably had more to do with KCET overall than specifically IGA

KCET was no longer involved with Castlevania after CotM. That was their last game. Since then it was IGA's team making CV games.

[Nagumo]

That's KCEK (Kobe). He's talking about the Tokyo branch.

[Viskod]

The previous page has a quote where he says Konami denied his social game ideas at least three times because they felt too much like core games. He explicitly said that was one of his motivations to leave.

That is different than this.

Yeah, but Konami apparently demanded he made social games while that wasn't what he wanted to do, hence he set up his own company. I still stand by my analogy.

Making social games was what he wanted to do. But as I also said...

Well he wanted to do social games because that's the trend Japan itself is going in and welcomed doing something new, but I guess his personal design tastes didn't fit their social game mold.

I'm sure with how successful they're becoming in Japan there is a typical mold of what makes money already set out and Igarashi probably wanted to do something different and had some ideas rejected. But to say that he had working on social games forced upon him is not true, he wanted to work on them.

[Dremn]

Konami doesn't have access to the LoS2 engine?

Well shit, they better make a new 2D Castlevania for 3DS then. I'm not sure what else they can do right now. Hope they're not banking on more DLC for LoS2.

Igarashi doesn't have a name for his new development studio, he says, and he hasn't ruled out collaborating with some of his former colleagues and co-creators, like artist Ayami Kojima and musician Michiru Yamane.

Oh man this would be awesome.

He'll likely focus on console games at his new studio, as that's where much of his fan base resides. But he doesn't want to exclude other platforms, like PC, mobile or handhelds, and if fans demand it, he'll consider all hardware options. "I don't want to close any doors," he said.

So finally 2D (not) Castlevania on consoles again?

I especially love this quote by IGA too:

"I'm a simple man with simple needs," Iga said. "The process of making something, releasing it, having fans be happy with what you've created, [that's what I want]. The last two years, I haven't been able to finish that process for a variety of reasons. If I can do that, that would make me very happy. That is what I want to do with my studio: release games that make people happy."

The words of someone who truly enjoys what he does. It's great his departure was more heart warming from his colleagues than cold like Inafune's, barely anyone at Capcom bid him farewell or said goodbye when he went on to start Comcept.

[Viskod]

They could always let Platinum make them a game. At the very least the combat would be top notch and fun.

[Rugal]

Castlevania is dead. Excuse me while I go play some Dark Souls 2 with my fire whip, holy water, and throwing knives.

[Nagumo]

Viskod, although IGA worked on social games, Konami rejected his ideas because they felt too much like core games, meaning that was not where his heart lies. I don't get what's wrong about that.

[Shinobi]

Castlevania is dead. Excuse me while I go play some Dark Souls 2 with my fire whip, holy water, and throwing knives.

I haven't played Dark Souls 1 or 2 yet but as I have seen in the videos, it looks like a 3d version of Diablo than Castlevania IMO.

[Dremn]

Viskod, although IGA worked on social games, Konami rejected his ideas because they felt too much like core games, meaning that was not where his heart lies. I don't get what's wrong about that.

There was nothing wrong with it, whatever ideas IGA had just didn't fit with Konami's new criteria by the looks of things.

[e105beta]

There was nothing wrong with it, whatever ideas IGA had just didn't fit with Konami's new criteria by the looks of things.

Which is why he left. I don't think there's much of an argument here, IGA was fine working on social games until he realized that his idea of a social game and Konami's were too different things.

I think people are trying to turn this too much into a "Konami is a sinking ship! Run into the sunset IGA! Leave those assholes behind!" where Konami is the big bad villain and IGA is the hero because Konami allowed LoS to come into being.

[Viskod]

Exactly, there's absolutely nothing to suggest that his departure was not completely amicable for both him and Konami. I'm sure if he wanted to stay at Konami and do something else other than social games, he would have been able to.

Viskod, although IGA worked on social games, Konami rejected his ideas because they felt too much like core games, meaning that was not where his heart lies. I don't get what's wrong about that.

There's nothing wrong with this statement but your previous attempts to say this ended up being factually inaccurate.