Konami takeover Hudson Soft

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I doubt this will mean much for us shmuppers, exept maybe old titles on VC
http://www.destructoid.com/hudson-s-sou ... 2166.phtml

[Skykid]

Interesting news, thanks Trev.

[MathU]

Ugh, first Taito's acquisition and now Hudson. I am not liking this developer homogeneity lately. It is not a good thing for game diversity in general.
This really surprises me coming from Konami.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

who own's Taito? It's either SquareEnix or Konami isnt it?

Game companies been bought out by bigger fish has been happening for a while now especially in the west. I suppose as the costs to produce and market games gets higher and higher this is a tend we will continue to see. What worries me is where does this mean for cheap to medium development games ment for the more niche markets

[BrianC]

Ugh, first Taito's acquisition and now Hudson. I am not liking this developer homogeneity lately. It is not a good thing for game diversity in general.
This really surprises me coming from Konami.

G.Rev and the outsourced games based on Taito's properties happened years before Square Enix buying them out. Not to mention that games like Space Invaders Extreme 1 & 2 and Infinity Gene came out after they were bought out by Square.

A good amount of Hudson was already owned by Konami, so this isn't much of a surprise.

I doubt this will mean much for us shmuppers, exept maybe old titles on VC

I'm not sure if this will have much effect since both companies already supported the VC.

[Despatche]

Ugh, first Taito's acquisition and now Hudson. I am not liking this developer homogeneity lately. It is not a good thing for game diversity in general.

I don't think we would have seen SIE were it not for Square buying Taito. I honestly don't think Hudson will go for very long without this purchase, either. Also ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.

[Elixir]

Honestly, I am really glad to hear about this. I really hope Konami can do a better job with the Bomberman series, because evidently Hudson can't.

Bomberman Live was more or less a fluke, a one-off, that they couldn't replicate. They ported Live to PS3 under the name of Bomberman Ultra, but it was a direct port (with all of the DLC packs from Live), and contained many bugs - including the entire game freezing, forcing you to shut off your console. It was a far inferior version of Live.

Then along comes Bomberman Battlefest in late 2010, after delays of over a year. Maps and modes have been completely removed, the netcode is actually inferior to that of Ultra and Live, and there's already a DLC pack. Disgruntled, I even made a thread (one of the first, and only) on the Hudson forums, pointing out the various issues with Battlefest: http://hudsonentertainment.com/forum/vi ... f=22&t=886

I'm really hoping Konami can come up with a new and enjoyable way of playing Bomberman, preferably for current gen consoles, and something that can be treated as a competitive game, not just merely a party game (which is what I believe Hudson always treated it as).

[Drum]

Why would you expect Konami to do any better? They are as much of a shitpile as any company in the industry.

[devilmanozzy]

Why would you expect Konami to do any better? They are as much of a shitpile as any company in the industry.

While I am not a fan of the strong words, You do have a point. It's like when K-mart bought Sears, yeah.

So this doesn't appear to be a big change. The only good that can come of it, is more game collections. That is not going to thrill most fans that want new chapters in games for Hudson Soft.

[Elixir]

Why would you expect Konami to do any better? They are as much of a shitpile as any company in the industry.

Because even though I'm a huge Bomberman fan, Hudson is not a good company. Konami might be able to make something out their games that they couldn't.

[BulletMagnet]

Not exclusively shmup-related, so moved to OT.

[gameoverDude]

Now I'm waiting for Gate of Thunder Cross. Sorry, could not resist.

Hudson shall become a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami, and will be used primarily to strengthen the company's mobile and social gaming abilities. Hudson CEO Michihiro Ishizuka will resign March 31, with the stock swap expected to go down on April 1.

Ehh... the mobile/social bit is a little dicey to me, unless it could mean some good ports of games to iOS. OTOH Konami could use Hudson to port over some older arcade & console titles to portables (Star Soldier Deluxe Pack anyone?).

[KMM]

I expect we'll see Mobagetown Bomberman and Star Soldier Arc soon.

[ZOM]

Ha, I thought they were already owned by Konami years ago. Wasn't aware about that 54%-only thing.
Anyways, I don't think this changes much for the Hudson products consumer.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

http://www.destructoid.com/hudson-close ... 3548.phtml

[ZOM]

Darn.
Another one gone and the big shots spitting hand-holding shit get even more cash in.
That's not exactly what I was expecting the videogame industry to become.

EDIT: I misinterpreted something - it seems that "just" the western branch is closing doors.
So, Hudson Soft still exists although owned by Konami. How much that means for some of their IPs I do not know,
but as a long-time PCE lover it's still a bit sad to see how things are changing.

[antares]

I wonder if this is having an effect on the upcoming Bonk game?

[BulletMagnet]

Not necessarily directly related to this, but Takahashi Meijin is leaving.

[Jeneki]

Does this mean we're not getting a new HE System?

[BulletMagnet]

Again, only marginally OT, but in case anyone was wondering what Takahashi Meijin might be up to these days, apparently he's joining Inafune doing Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk-2 cameos of some sort.

[BPzeBanshee]

Now I'm waiting for Gate of Thunder Cross. Sorry, could not resist.

Hudson shall become a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami, and will be used primarily to strengthen the company's mobile and social gaming abilities. Hudson CEO Michihiro Ishizuka will resign March 31, with the stock swap expected to go down on April 1.

Ehh... the mobile/social bit is a little dicey to me, unless it could mean some good ports of games to iOS. OTOH Konami could use Hudson to port over some older arcade & console titles to portables (Star Soldier Deluxe Pack anyone?).

I was thinking of a half-decent Bomberman port to Facebook where you can dress your Bomberman people as Vic Viper cosplays with orange balls coming from their ass.

That'd be excellent considering Facebook games are all complete shit right now anyway. MSN's games are better.

[BulletMagnet]

It's official - Konami is dissolving what's left of Hudson.

[Drum]

Fuck Konami.

[Estebang]

This news means little to me. Hudson hasn't actually done anything of note in about four years.

[Zeether]

This won't affect the Turbografx-16 digital releases, right? I know Nintendo announced there would be TG16 games on the 3DS eShop at one point alongside Game Gear titles. I'm guessing the IPs are retained anyway.

Still, very sad.

[gct]

Ugh, first Taito's acquisition and now Hudson. I am not liking this developer homogeneity lately. It is not a good thing for game diversity in general.
This really surprises me coming from Konami.

Konami properties seem to be relatively diverse - could you imagine stuff like Gradius, Contra, Castlevania, Silent Hill, Metal Gear, ZOE, even Bemani & Tokimeki Memorial could come from the same company?

Anyway... I'm not too bothered about it. I think I'm getting out of video games again...

[Estebang]

I'm mostly worried by the fact that Konami has been outsourcing everything for years and barely developing anything in-house. It's a miracle that the Otomedii got made.

[JBC]

I'm mostly worried by the fact that Konami has been outsourcing everything for years and barely developing anything in-house. It's a miracle that the Otomedii got made.

Just the opposite if you were wanting Gradius VI or at least an HD port of the stellar V. Otomedius is like a kick in the face since it feels like Konami would rather cater to pedophiles than it's established fanbase. Why not just give us a new Parodius?

I'm not too satisfied with the company lately. The Castlevania reboot was barely Castlevania and Guns of the Patriots was even contrived by Metal Gear standards. They are letting outsourced developers walk all over the Silent Hill series what with thier Korn soundtracks and all...

All I can say in thier defense is maybe this new Contra will be something to get excited about.

[Ex-Cyber]

I wonder if they'd entertain open-sourcing Human68K (second-greatest OS name ever), if the sources even still exist.

[Ghegs]

All I can say in thier defense is maybe this new Contra will be something to get excited about.

New Contra? Have I missed something?