How Konami Can Rely Less on Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid is easily the biggest video game franchise for Konami. In fact, the video game publisher struggles financially as a whole without any new Metal Gear Solid game releases. Unfortunately for them, the popular brand would eventually wear off if Konami continues to milk it dry. Here are a few ways the Japanese video game publisher can beef up their video game portfolio without the help of the Metal Gear Solid games.

More Focus on Secondary Franchises
While Metal Gear Solid is easily the breadwinner of the Konami family, the publisher also has a few other notable franchises. Their Pro Evolution Soccer series is a big hit everywhere besides the United States. Furthermore, Konami also has Silent Hill, which is one of the more popular adventure series in the industry. Finally, Castlevania is a hardcore series that has a substantial hardcore following. Fortunately for Konami, all three secondary franchises have new games coming. While they won't fill in the entire gap, it does help the publisher financially when there are no new Metal Gear Solid releases on the horizon.

Partner with Western Development Studios
Konami is used to relying on its own Japanese development studios to produce games. However, western studios have quickly surpassed their eastern counterparts when it comes to creating the latest and greatest video games. So in order for Konami to continue being financially successful worldwide, they would need to start working with western developers more. They are well on their way with this strategy as they are now working with Climax Group to develop Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in addition to partnering with MercurySteam for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Revitalize Music Segment
Before Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Konami ruled the music gaming world with Dance Dance Revolution. Unfortunately, they failed to expand upon their popular dancing series. This is really frustrating for Konami because GuitarFreaks predated Guitar Hero, which went on to become one of the most popular franchises in gaming. Now their other music games pale in comparisons to the competitors in terms of popularity due to some bad decision making. Still, Konami should stick to their expertise and try to revitalize their music segment in order to limit their reliance on Metal Gear Solid.

Build New Franchises
It is quite a risky business move for a publisher like Konami to introduce a new video game franchise due to the rising costs of development. In order to find long term financial success, however, they need another intellectual property to stand alongside Metal Gear Solid. This will most likely require another internal studio other than Kojima Productions (the developer of Metal Gear Solid) to step up and accept the challenge.