Right, first up let's preface this by saying that this is coming from a combination of the terrible things Google Translate does to language and a NeoGAF post breaking down the key points of an interview with Konami director and president Hideki Hayakawa. So take it all with a pinch of salt. The overall thrust of it seems pretty clear though: Konami is basically focusing all its efforts on mobile gaming from here on in.
In an interview on Japanese gaming site jin115.com Hayakawa states that, "from now on mobile is at the centre", when talking about Konami's games, and that the company will "continue expand aggressively" in that area. The NeoGAF translations include phrases like, "our main platform will be mobiles", and, "mobile is where the future of gaming lies", and perhaps most depressingly: "we hope that our overseas games such as MGSV and Winning Eleven [PES] continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too".
Sounds like a company that's so not into console games anymore.
It would certainly explain the recent behaviour regarding Kojima's rumoured move to contractor and the removal of PT/Silent Hills. There have been talk for a while that Konami was losing interest in mainstream games, and now it looks like it's voicing that publicly. A lot of gamers have been saying things about how the company will die without Kojima but, from a business point of view, it doesn't care. It's shifting away from expensive console development and simply getting rid of stuff it doesn't want any more. MGS and PES has been all it's had for awhile now.
As an organisation, it's got interests in health and fitness clubs, slot machines and way more than games. In its last financials 'Digital Entertainment' is the biggest money spinner but that's all based on the success of mobile games. Even in its outlook for the next fiscal year it's all over mobile, talking about "the spread of smartphones and tablet PCs worldwide". There's mention of PES making money from "online payments', and as for Metal Gear Solid 5? That has a mention for getting 'a great response'.
The interview's clearly struck a nerve with Japanese gamers too. Most of the site's stories have around 50-200 comments on average. That interview has 1164. Most of them seem unhappy, with one poster calling Hayakawa "the root of all evil".
The last hope many people were clinging to was that Kojima's apparent sidelining and removal from Konami was some sort of elaborate marketing ruse. More and more it just looks like Konami are literally getting out of the game.
