Platinum Games and their caveats

I heartily agree. Most side ops in Peace Walker were very creative, so I can't imagine why they thought rescuing the same dumb operatives and shooting the same bullet sponges over and over in V would be fun. I'll go with: "either they delivered a bunch of uncreative side ops or Konami would turn all of them into a Pachinko minigame".

I don't know about the future of Kojima working on the West.

So far he is saying he is getting inspiration from The Division for his new project. I'm not sure how good that sounds.

I would suggest he stays in Japan and keeps his studio there instead of moving to L.A..

I know now he feels free from Konami. Working for Japanese companies is not a joke.

Back in the day most of the Capcom staff had to use pseudonyms on the credits because Capcom would not let them use their real names so no other companies can come and steal their talent.

I mean they were pulling some of the best Fighters in the world along with SNK.

I'm sure it was not just Capcom but others as well. All these Japanese companies had insane amounts of talent and didn't want to share it.

So without that kind of heavy pressure environment that forces excellence, who knows if people like Kojima may produce a different type of end product.

It may still be about mechs, we just have to wait like 4 years and see.

Never heard of that theory. I would like if you further explain. The only game I can think of with the potential of that kind of repercution is Melee, but it wasn't. The successors came with multiplayer and sold well.

The idea is simple. When you make a game with couch co-op or AI partners/rivals, it can last indefinitely. Think Konami's old TMNT games, for example. Now, pick that old TMNT game again and make it into an online multiplayer only modern game, and specifically for something like PSN; now picture Sony going bankrupt and PSN going down, that means the only way for players to play that game would be buying it again for another online service. That's the most basic part of the same-room multiplayer issue for publishers.

Now, pick Call of Duty: games can go obselete easily without AI partners, because the main mode of gameplay is the online multiplayer. That means you can release a new product while making the previous one obselete at the same time because of players' fear that they won't have enough people to play with in the previous product.

As for the Smash series, the protection going on in those is its own market characteristic.

This thread has me thinking about replaying Astral Chain, although I'd have to relearn how to play it. The game was a mixed bag for me, but I did enjoy it (except for the final boss.)

By the way, Star Fox Guard was fun.