KONAMI’s Motoi Okamoto took to social media to elaborate on his recent statement at TGS 2025 that bigger companies shouldn’t be afraid to go against the grain.
His message is multiple posts long and details his belief that big companies should be ready and wiling to take risks because they have the resources to support it.
…these big companies already have the money, so they properly should take risks (and if one of the employees, try to convince them to do so) – that’s just common sense in this notion.
Okamoto isn’t just talking about having the courage to take financial risks—he also takes aim at veteran game developers, who he believes shouldn’t be settling for “a low-risk strategy” when conceptualising and producing video games.
If inexperienced young staff or new hires are struggling to get their proposals approved and opt for a low-risk strategy, I could reluctantly understand that, giving them a million concessions. But at the very least, that’s not the path a veteran should choose.
This is a refreshing take that’s a bit surprising to hear from a producer at KONAMI. The company behind Metal Gear and Silent Hill has undergone a prolonged image crisis that began with the unceremonious firing of video games icon Hideo Kojima. The controversial decision was then followed by a series of business decisions that many gamers felt exploited the company’s game properties in service of the bottom line, including a shift in focus to mobile games and, most notoriously, with the production of pachinko and slots machines stamped with the Metal Gear name.
KONAMI has made a drastic turnaround in recent years following the release of a number of well-received projects from legacy IPs. Last year’s Silent Hill 2 remake, developed by Bloober Team, was a commercial and critical success, and last month’s Silent Hill f is on track to do even better. Metal Gear Solid Delta, a remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3, has also been received positively by gamers, leaving many hopeful for the future of the series for the first time since Kojima’s departure a decade ago. While remakes probably aren’t the kind of innovation that Okamoto is talking about here, these multi-million-dollar projects would definitely be considered high-risk endeavours relative to KONAMI’s recent track record of mobile and live service games.
Let me repeat: if a big company with money doesn’t take risks, there’s no way the economy or the industry will keep moving. It’s about putting your money where your mouth is.
In 2019, Motoi Okamoto left Nintendo, where he worked on games like Wii Fit and Pikmin, to lead the Silent Hill series at KONAMI. Most recently, he held a producer role on the critically acclaimed Silent Hill f. Previously, he directed and produced the free-to-play PlayStation Plus exclusive, Silent Hill: The Short Message.
