About

Konami is a entertainment company founded in 1969 as a producer of toys and animation production. They are most known for their video games, with their most famous works being the video game franchises Castlevania, Contra, Metal Gear and Silent Hill.

History

Pre-video game era (1969-1973)

In March, 1969, Kagemasa Kozuki (founder and chairman) founded Konami in Osaka, Japan as a jukebox rental/repair shop. During this time the shop has expanded to produce toys, trading cards, anime/tokusatsu, and slot machines.

The Beginning

In March, 1973, Kozuki transformed the business and began manufacturing arcade cabinets and later exporting to the United States. It was until 1982 Konami began producing and selling PC games and then to the Family Computer ("Famicom") and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) where they produced their bestselling titles being Gradius, Castlevania and Contra Series, and Metal Gear. In 1992 Konami had left Nintendo and began working with SEGA, and in 1994 working with SONY producing titles such as the Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill Series for the Playstation. Another title released during that decade was the title Dance Dance Revolution, a dance simulation game, in 1998 revolutionized the music game industry.

Modern Era

In the year 2000 Konami partnered with Universal Studios to publish the next title to Crash Bandicoot for fifth-gen console systems, that same partnership allowed both of them to publish and distribute other titles. Effectively making Konami to publish games for all systems introducing them to the Xbox. Later in 2006 Konami entered the pachinko slot machine market, by that time they were the sixth largest game developer in Japan. In 2015, after the cancellation of Silent Hills and the release of Metal Gear Solid V Konami: The Phantom Pain has announced they would no longer be making Triple A games and delisted itself from the NY stock exchange.

Reception

Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer/screenwriter/director and producer who worked with Konami 1986 to 2015, his most noticeable works with the company is the Metal Gear series. In 2015 there was controversy surrounding his treatment within the company and in October

Video Game Series

Castlevania

Castlevania is one of Konami's biggest videogame series. The games are about vampires and vampire hunters, specifically the vampire Dracula and his clan and the vampire hunting Belmont family, who are dedicated to stop Dracula from spreading his evil throughout the world.

Metal Gear

The Metal Gear series is an action-adventure stealth game franchise. The series is a popular resulting in it having a fairly large fan base as well as spawning many different memes.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill is a survival horror series which centers around the fictional town of Silent Hill. The first game was released on the PlayStation in 1999 and the series has received positive critical acclaim, and the games have been adapted into spin-offs, various print media and even a film series.

Related Memes

Konami Code

The Konami Code is a sequence of buttons that usually activates features in games such as cheats and unlockables. However many websites and other pieces of interactive media use the code as an easter egg. The code was first used in the game "Gradius" and is "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start"