Konami Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Silent Hill publisher Konami has opened a new studio in Osaka, Japan, to provide “sustainable growth” for the 50-year-old company.The company’s newest branch has been named Konami Osaka Studio, and a press release from Komani has shared that it is equipped with motion capture equipment and sound studios.Konami explained that Osaka Studio will help it “continue sustainable growth in the next 50 years,” following the company celebrating its 50th birthday in March.Elsewhere, construction continues on Konami’s “next-generation R&D centre” in Tokyo, which is scheduled to complete in 2025.In the same press release, Konami also announced that it has “substantially” raised the company’s base salary level. This means an average increase of 50,000JPY (£303) per employee, while the base salary for new starters will be increased by the same amount.“We have taken various steps to promote management emphasized on human capital, improve employee engagement, and enhance its competitiveness,” shared Konami.Over the last year, a number of Japanese game publishers have issued pay rises for its workers.Back in February, Sega announced a 30 per cent pay increase for all workers, which will kick in from July 2023.In the same month, Nintendo confirmed it would be giving its employees a 10 per cent pay rise.

Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 are due for release in 2024 according to Sony.Silent Hill 2 was originally released in 2001 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC before a remake was confirmed by Konami in October 2022. Since then though, updates have been scarce with Bloober Team asking for “patience” in November.

Silent Hill: Ascension started late last month, promising an entirely new experience in the Silent Hill universe. But following accusations of using AI, the CEO of Genvid has defended the title.Several fans have noted a similarity to AI-written dialogue, with X (formerly Twitter) user VoidBurger posting that she absolutely believes that Silent Hill Ascension is “written by A.I and [I] cannot be convinced otherwise”.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, has said her design was “not practical at all” but still plays a part of a “fantasy”.Joosten said that she was aware of the “different perspectives” on the character and that she “respects” the artistry that came into creating Quiet.“And also, of course, there’s also just a choice of creating a character that’s visually appealing,” she continued.“I think video games are, in a way, still a sort of fantasy world you enter, so I definitely respect the choices regarding the Quiet appearance, for instance, being quite revealing.”Conversely, Joosten acknowledged and appreciated that there were opinions that were much more critical on her design.“This game came out in 2015, and I think the video game landscape has changed quite a lot since then. People are looking for more representation, and I really get it,” the actor added.Quiet’s minimal clothing is justified in the story of Metal Gear Solid 5 as her parasitic treatment for her injuries causes her to breathe through her skin and photosynthesise for food.

Silent Hill: Ascension premiered on October 31, however, fans have ridiculed the series season pass which contains currency that influences viewer-voted choices.Silent Hill: Ascension is an interactive streaming series with multiple main characters that allows viewers to vote on choices and outcomes. Additionally, the events of the series will affect the canon of Silent Hill more widely.Available on mobile phones and through a desktop browser, the first of a number of daily live episodes dropped last night.

Silent Hill: Ascension will launch for iOS, Android and desktop browsers in time for Halloween, allowing viewers to choose what happens in its unfolding story.As an interactive streaming series, viewers across the world will vote on the outcome of Silent Hill: Ascension. “There are many different ways that the story can end and even we the creators don’t know what will happen,” said Jacob Navok, executive producer of the series and CEO of Genvid Entertainment, the developer of Silent Hill: Ascension.

Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi had died, with his death officially being recorded as drowning. A recent report from the U.S.

Silent Hill game has been rated by South Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee, titled Silent Hill: The Short Message.The game was rated by the committee on Monday (September 26), listed under publisher UNIANA. As Gematsu reports, the company regularly publishes Konami games in South Korea.A number of Silent Hill projects are reportedly in development at various studios, including Bloober Team (The Medium, Layers Of Fear) who partnered with Konami last year to jointly develop “selected contents”.

Guillermo del Toro has shared his frustrations at the cancellation of Silent Hills, as fellow director Hideo Kojima commemorates the eight-year anniversary of its playable teaser.Yesterday (August 12), Kojima took to Twitter to share an image of P.T. alongside the caption “it’s been eight years”, referencing the release of the playable demo that also acted as a teaser to Silent Hills – the planned Kojima-produced instalment of the Silent Hill franchise.However six months later, Konami cancelled the game after three years of development with Kojima then going independent with his studio Kojima Productions.It looks like Guillermo del Toro, who was set to direct the game alongside Kojima, is still frustrated by the studio’s decision to scrap Silent Hills.

Silent Hill 2 art director Masahiro Ito thinks that a different version of the game’s Pyramid Head should be in Dead By Daylight.Ito, who was the creator of the original Pyramid Head character and a monster designer for the Silent Hill trilogy, recently discussed the character’s creation and suggested that an alternate version should be in Behaviour Interactive‘s asymmetric survival horror game (via PCGamesN).The art director explained that since Silent Hill 2‘s Pyramid Head was created specifically to relate to the game’s protagonist James Sunderland, an alternate version should be used in Dead By Daylight since the monster only exists in James’ mind.Why doesn't Dead By Daylight use White Hunter (Белый Охотник) as a killer? I designed this for the comic included in the OST of SH:origin/zero Japanese edition, but this was another pyramid head that was not for James originally. pic.twitter.com/zQlqirngK8— 伊藤暢達/Masahiro Ito (@adsk4) August 7, 2022Ito did create a different version of Pyramid Head, one that is depicted in a dull white colour, as opposed to the original being bloody and rusted red.

Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, has died at aged 60.As reported by NHK, a body was reported “drifting prone” off the coast of Okinawa, Japan on Wednesday morning. A firefighter was called out to attend the scene, but Takahashi was later pronounced dead and identified today (July 7).Takahashi was reportedly found with snorkelling equipment, and The Japan Times says the coast guard is looking into the cause of his death.Takahashi is best known as the author of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, which was published in 1996.

Silent Hill movie, revealed in an interview that Konami is planning a large-scale reboot of the franchise.The Internet is awash with rumours of the return of the beloved horror franchise, with potential leaks circulating of an upcoming game and the strategic partnership Konami entered with horror specialists Bloober Team raising questions on whether they will be taking the reigns of a new Silent Hill game. Well, it looks like more fuel has been thrown on the fire from an unlikely source.Gans was the director of the original Silent Hill movie released in 2006 and in an interview given to French outlet JEUXACTU (thanks, PCGamesN), he revealed some interesting details about Konami’s upcoming plans for the franchise.

Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time has been added to the Video Game Hall Of Fame alongside Ms. Pac-Man, Sid Meier’s Civilization and Dance Dance Revolution.The Strong Museum’s World Video Game Hall Of Fame is based in Rochester, New York and began in 2015.It “recognises electronic games of all types that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general,” says a statement on their website.Since it opened, the museum has inducted 36 games into the Hall Of Fame including DOOM, Pong and Grand Theft Auto 3.Speaking about Ocarina Of Time’s induction, the Hall Of Fame wrote: “Even today, developers throughout the world credit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time as influencing the way they create games.

Konami is hosting an indie games event in Japan to help smaller developers get noticed.Indie Games Connect 2022 will take place on June 26 at the Konami Creative Center in Ginza, Tokyo. It will be entirely free to both exhibitors and attendees.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel continues to be a huge success, reaching 10million downloads worldwide.First launched on January 19 for pretty much every platform imaginable, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has gone from strength to strength. That has no doubt been helped by its mobile launch on January 27 further ensuring you will never get away from the game.To celebrate the new milestone, Konami is giving away 1,000 gems to all players who log into the game between now and March 31.Impressively, a significant part of its download gain was achieved in just 10 days.

Metal Gear franchise has sold almost 60million copies worldwide, according to numbers provided by Konami.With the specific number coming in at 58million, the entire series starting from 1987’s Metal Gear for the MSX2 computer all the way to the Metal Gear Solid revamp and other spin-offs appear to be counted towards the total.This comes after Konami announced late last year that it would be pulling Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 from all storefronts. Despite speculation, Konami confirmed that this was due to both of the titles using archived historical footage, which licences need to be renewed for.“We are currently working on renewing the licences for select historical archive footage used in-game, therefore, we have made the temporary decision to begin suspending the sale [of both games] and all products that include these games from digital storefronts globally starting from November 8, 2021.”As of publication, both games appear to still be down from stores.Shortly after this, reports emerged that Konami was planning to revive the Metal Gear and Castlevania franchises alongside Silent Hill.

Konami has halted sales for Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3, removing the games from all digital storefronts due to licences for in-game historical footage.As of today (November 8), Konami has revealed that it is “temporarily” removing every edition of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3.A statement from Konami explains the decision:“We are currently working on renewing the licenses for select historical archive footage used in-game, therefore, we have made the temporary decision to begin

Silent Hill villain Pyramid Head is back to stalk victims in Dead by Daylight, as part of an ongoing crossover between Konami and Behaviour Interactive.Not only will Pyramid Head himself get a horrifying new skin, dubbed “Pyramid Blight”, the fearsome killer will be joined in Dead by Daylight by James Sunderland, the protagonist of Silent Hill 2, which launched on PS2 twenty years ago.

Konami, the legendary publisher behind the Metal Gear and Castlevania franchises has announced that it will publish Cygni: All Guns Blazing, a new shoot-em-up.Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a new arcade-style shoot-em-up being developed in Scotland by new studio KeelWorks. The studio, whose founders have worked across film and animation, announced the collaboration with the legendary publisher.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.Following a restructuring at Konami, the company which owns Metal Gear Solid, VGC reported that the series was in for a revival, amongst some others.

FIFA 22, Electronic Arts (EA) has released a statement on the game’s record-breaking launch and where the franchise could go next.Namely, we could be seeing the football series undergo a name change, as a press release states that the company is “exploring the idea of renaming our global EA SPORTS football games.

Resident Evil Village fan game in the style of Castlevania, complete with 2D pixel art and animation.Residentvania, which was developed by ”Oco‘ on itch.io, is a pixel adventure game that follows Village‘s protagonist Ethan as he fights his way through Lady Dimitrescu’s castle.Oco explained why they wanted to recreate this fan game in this style saying: “The first thing I thought while playing Resident Evil: Village was how much it reminded me of Castlevania, so I thought I’d make a mash-up of

Konami is running a competition that will let small development teams in Japan revive older Konami titles, with a cash prize and shot at funding attached.Through the ‘Konami Action & Shooting Game Contest‘, Konami is offering indie devs a chance to win a cash prize and “an offer to commercialise” any game that uses specific older Konami titles (thanks, Nintendo Life).Working with Shueisha Game Creators Camp – which aims to support indie game developers – the competition asks developers to create

Konami is reportedly set to revive its biggest premium game franchises, including Metal Gear, Castlevania, and Silent Hill.This is according to a new report from VGC, who has claimed to have spoken to anonymous publishing sources who did not have permission to discuss their projects publicly.The first of these projects is a new Castlevania game, which is being described as a “reimagining” of the series that is currently being developed internally at Konami in Japan, with support from local

Castlevania Advance Collection is in fact real, and can be played right now on Nintendo Switch.Announced during yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, this is a collection of four Castlevania titles, three from the Game Boy Advance (GBA) and one from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES):According to the Nintendo webpage for the announcement there’s also plenty of extra features in the collection like a gallery of original concept art, the ability to select which region’s ROM you want to play, a

Kojima has given his opinion on the evolution of games, saying he wants to make games that “change in real-time”.In an interview with Anan, a Japanese magazine, Kojima revealed his plans to keep games fresh via the evolution of the medium.

Final Fantasy XIV player shared their experience from when they decided to mod a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel disk to function as a controller for the game.The project was originally shared last month by creator SuperLouis64 on their Twitter (thanks Kotaku), where they showed off how a duel disk can be combined with a mouse and keyboard whilst doing dungeon raids.

Metal Gear Solid still has a large speedrunning community – and a new glitch has blown things wide open for them.During a normal playthrough, streamer Boba discovered a glitch that essentially sees Snake warp through a locked door, saving players a very valuable two minutes.The glitch happened on Communication Tower A. Usually players would have to climb the 27 staircases to reach the top of the tower but on this playthrough, a guard shot Snake which triggered the next section of the game.

Konami has announced that the previously discontinued mobile game, Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, will soon be available exclusively on Apple Arcade.Previously ‘soft launched’ in Canada back in late 2019, Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls is a classic 2D Castlevania style game with 60 stages to play through.Players are able to choose from five characters from Castlevania history including Alucard best known from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Simon Belmont from the original Castlevania, Maria

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.The mod, which is called Metal Gear Solid: The Wind Waker, was created by AaronTheEpicGaemr, and is currently available to download from Game Banana.

PES 2021 eEURO finals will start tomorrow (July 8), as 16 national teams will battle it out online to be crowned the winner.The eEURO competition is hosted by UEFA and involves over 55 national teams competing to make it through to the finals.

Konami has sacked Barcelona striker Antoine Griezmann as a brand ambassador less than a month after signing the footballer to represent the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.As reported in South China Morning Post, the decision came following the emergence of controversial videos of the French footballer and his team mate Ousmane Dembele from a club tour to Japan in 2019.In the video, Griezmann and Dembele, who both played for France in Euro 2020, are shown appearing to mock Asian workers fixing a television

Konami and Bloober Team, the developer of horror games including Layers Of Fear and The Medium, have announced a new strategic cooperation agreement.According to a press statement from the Polish developer’s website, this will include jointly developing “selected contents” and “exchanging know-how”.“It is a historic day for me and the culmination of several years of our work,” Bloober Team president Piotr Babieno said in a prepared statement.“The fact that such a renowned company as Konami has

Konami’s long running action franchise Contra has been announced, as mobile exclusive Contra Returns launches on July 26.Official pre-registration for Contra Returns on iOS and Android devices has started today.

Castlevania Advance Collection, suggesting a future release.A classification for the Castlevania Advance Collectionwas filed on Friday (June 18) and rates the game as Moderate Impact for Themes and Violence but gives little information.The industry details state that it will be multi-platform, published by Konami, and that it will be in English and Japanese, and that it should land in 2021.Three different games from the series were released for the Game Boy Advance, 2001’s Castlevania: Circle Of

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is getting a new crossover with Super Bomberman R Online.The official Fall Guys Twitter account announced that a brand new Bomberman skin would be coming to Fall Guys as of June 4, and that the Fall Guy “Bean Bomber” is available for players of Super Bomberman R Online as of now.