NOVEMBER
K
onami’s woes and
weirdness sank to
new depths in November, as they closed their
LA studio, responsible for
Metal Gear Online, with
the loss of over 20 jobs.
The move was part of an
ongoing centralisation of
Konami, and was linked
to the shuttering of the
original Kojima Productions and ending of work
with Hideo Kojima earlier in the year.
The hugely respected
and long running company, known for the Konami Code among other
famous works, was revealed to have been running its operations using
some pretty draconian
methods, too. A report
in Nikkei, the Japanese
business
publication,
claimed that employees’
lunch breaks were being monitored on time
cards, that they were
being watched through
cameras, and that developers deemed not useful enough were being
moved to roles including
security, cleaning or factory work as punishment.
Although
practices
like this are allegedly
not uncommon in Japanese business, it fed into
an atmosphere of serious distrust of Konami
globally - not helped by
their seeming fixation on
Pachinko slot machines
over video games in
recent months. What is
happening there is as yet
not entirely clear, but it’s
one to watch. Konami
could be heading for a
fall.
in October, with the release of The Beginner’s
Guide being among
them. An adventure title that walks its player
through the worlds ostensibly created
by the dev e l o p e r ’s
one -time
friend,
it’s an insightful
look into
introversion
and the nature of gameplay
as a symbolic method
of communication that
came with some emotional gut punches attached. And to make
that sentence more
fun, there’s a bit where
you talk to people with
brightly coloured boxes
for heads.
There was also Keep
Talking and Nobody Explodes, a bizarre meta
game which sees a team
of two helping defuse a
bomb ticking down on
a table in front
of them. One
player,
equipped
with
a
book of instructions,
can’t see
the screen at
all, and must
rely on spoken
instructions from their
partner inspecting the
bomb to try and make it
through. It was a guaranteed way to detonate
friendships in under ten
minutes, and a perfect
installation at parties.
DECEMBER
A
fter all the sound
and fury over Hideo
Kojima’s departure from
Konami, the games industry’s most inexplicable icon re-established
Kojima Productions as
an independent outfit a
week before Christmas.
Whether not being tied
to Konami will improve
his writing and plotting
abilities remains to be
seen.
The beginning of the
month saw the second annual The Game
Awards, a curiously
generic title for a pretty
major show, but one
which garnered quite a
bit of attention. With a
jury composed of major
journalists and developers, the eventual Game
of the Year winner was
epic open-world RPG
The Witcher 3, with
some more slightly odd
results including Spla-
toon as best Shooter
and no recognition for
the sublime Undertale.
The two biggest releases early in the month
were Just Cause 3 and
Xenoblade Chronicles X
- and you can read our
views on them later in
the magazine. But they
weren’t the only new
game launches in the
run-up to the new year.
Terraria finally made
it to 3DS, meaning it
needs only to be running on an oscilloscope
to complete its porting
to every system known
to humanity. The question really is why it was
never available for Nintendo’s handheld before - the touch screen
and dual screen layout
make it quite ideal for
the inventory management and block-placing
construction that make
up the bulk of game-
play.
Te r r a r i a
has quite unfairly been
overshadowed by Minecraft in the procedural construction market,
but definitely has major
charms of its own.
In preparation for
its full remake - which
was announced to be
episodic this month in
a move designed to inflict Confusion on every
journalist in the industry
- Final Fantasy VII reappeared on PS4. This
was met with unbridled
joy from the ever-rabid
fanbase, and the shrug
heard round the world
from those who don’t
hold weird amounts
of reverence for an 18
year old RPG with irritatingly common random encounters.
SOMETHING WE'VE MISSED?
It's been a massive year in gaming, and we can't fit in a
discussion of everything that happened. But if you think
there were any glaring omissions - or just want to make
your views on something heard - get in touch!
[email protected]
@CUBEDGAMERS
/CUBEDGAMERS
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