No, Metal Gear and Silent Hill company Konami isn't closing its game studios

Punished Snake
(Image credit: konami)

After a spike in speculation, Konami has clarified that it is merely restructuring its produ🐽ction divisions, not s🌟hutting down its gaming studios.

Earlier this month, Konami published a fairly innocuous which touched on some corporate appointments, other personnel changes, and "organizational restructuring." That 🐽last bit covers three production divisions that will be dissolved. The report says this decision was made "to respond to the rapid market that surrounds us," but some readers took this to mean that the publisher is outright shuttering three divisions worth of resources, perhaps including its game development arm. 

reports, Konami released a new statement to put the fires out: 

"The announcement made refers to an internal restructure, with product🦂ion divisions being consolida♓ted," Konami said. "We have not shut down our video gaming division."

It's easy to forget, but Konami is active in a range of markets, not all of them gaming. It makes mobile games, card games, and pachinko machines in addition to the blockbuster games it's best known for. This restructuring was likely ไdriven by multiple markets, not just video games, so Metal Gear and Silent Hill fans shouldn't be worried – at least, no more worried than they were two weeks ago. This likely won't affect Konami's approach to mainstream game development in a negative way, but it won't necessarily boost it either. 

Konami might not be making more Silent Hill games, but the series' creator has a new horror game in the works.

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing h♐is journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.