Holy crap, this report on how Konami treats its employees is horrifying

A new report has been published by Japanese business publication Nikkei, suggesting that the working conditions at Konami are bad.

The report, published by Nikkei, goes into stark details about the publishers treatment of it’s employees.

Employees are also given time cards to use when going on breaks, and those exceeding their breaks would be “outed” publicly. Office corridors have CCTV, but apparently this is not for security purposes: this is to monitor their employees movements. While sales and PR staff who have to communicate with outsiders do, many others have one that is routinely randomised every few months.

Among the allegations are claims that some Konami game developers who are no longer seen as useful have been given roles as cleaning staff, security guards and pachi-slot machine factory workers. One former employee announced on Facebook that he was leaving Konami as he had found another job, and the post was apparently monitored. Those who “liked” the post were moved into different jobs. It has been clearly stated that Konami is switching from console gaming and is rather prioritizing on mobile games since they’re seeing more cashflow from games like Dragon Collection.

Due to its low development cost and high profit returns, they’ve begun to shift their focus away from traditional console titles towards cheaper and potentially more lucrative social titles.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is set to release on September 1st for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC following in the next couple of weeks. Development of a new Suikoden game has reportedly been cancelled and prominent staff, such as the creator of hit Japanese game Love Plus and respected European producer Dave Cox, have recently left the company. It would seem this is the reason behind Kojima and Konagi’s falling out, with the higher-ups in the company refusing to finance Kojima’s ballooning development budget.

We’ve reached out to Konami for comment, but don’t expect to hear anything back.