According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Konami employees are forced to perform under some truly awful and oppressive working conditions.
Starting back in 2010, Nikkei reported, Konami began shifting its focus from hardcore console games to simpler and cheaper mobile games. This switch apparently caused Konami to change its working conditions for the worse. A breakdown of the Nikkei report can be seen below:
- Konami employees that are no longer perceived as useful are assigned to new jobs, like janitors or security guards. This impacts both senior and junior staff members.
- When one former employee announced on Facebook that he took a new job outside of the company, all of the Konami employees that “Liked” the post got reshuffled around the company.
- There are cameras in the hallways, but these are there to monitor employees, and not to scan for intruders.
- Some employees do not have their own permanent email addresses, and instead have to use addresses that are randomized every few months.
- Employees have their lunch breaks monitored, and if they take too long of a break, their names get broadcast around the company.
- Kojima Productions has been renamed as “Number 8 Production Department,” and people working there must work on computers with no internet access.
The newspaper also revealed that the development costs of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain were around 10 billion yen ($80 million). Konami has not yet commented on any of this information, but this article will be updated accordingly if it does.
