Metal Gear Solid is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and released for the PlayStation in 1998. The game was directed, produced, and written by Hideo Kojima, and serves as a sequel to the MSX2 video games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which Kojima also worked on. The game was first unveiled in the Tokyo Game Show in 1996 and subsequently shown in the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1997, before eventually releasing in late 1998.
Castlevania is an action-adventure gothic horror video game series created and developed by Konami. It has been released on various platforms, from early systems to modern consoles, as well as handheld devices such as mobile phones. The franchise has also expanded into other media, including comic books, an animated TV series and several spin-off video games.
Development hell, development limbo, or production hell is media industry jargon for a film, video game, television program, screenplay, software application, concept, or idea that remains in development for an especially long time before it progresses to production, if it ever does. Projects in development hell are not officially cancelled, but work on them slows or stops.
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, writer, director and producer.
The EyeToy is a color digital camera device, similar to a webcam, for the PlayStation 2. The technology uses computer vision and gesture recognition to process images taken by the camera. This allows players to interact with games using motion, color detection, and also sound, through its built-in microphone. It was released in October 2003.
Mafia is a 2002 action-adventure video game developed by Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in August 2002, and later ported to the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox consoles in 2004, in North America and Europe. The game traces the rise and fall of Tommy Angelo, a fictional mafioso in the 1930s.
Raiden, real name Jack, is a fictional character and protagonist from Konami's Metal Gear series of video games. The character was created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, and was introduced in the series as the main player character of the 2001 stealth game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden appears to be a member of the U.S. special operations unit FOXHOUND and is participating in his first mission against terrorists. Despite coming across as a rookie, he is a young soldier who is later revealed to have been a Liberian child soldier. Raiden also appears as a supporting character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which he is assisting the series' protagonist Solid Snake in his fight against Revolver Ocelot's forces. He is also the main character of the hack and slash game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in which he is dealing with his past and his present life as a combatant who faces enemies from private military companies.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, known in the PAL region as simply Castlevania, is a platform video game created by Konami for the Game Boy Advance. Published as a launch title in 2001, Circle of the Moon belongs to Konami's Castlevania video game series, the premise of which centers on the eternal conflict between the vampire hunters of the Belmont clan and the vampire Dracula.
Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977-1985, and was known for 1980s Berzerk. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1999, is a creator of pinball machines in North America.
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance is a platform-adventure video game developed and published by Konami for the Game Boy Advance. Belonging to Konami's Castlevania video game series, it is the second installment of the series on the Game Boy Advance. It was released in Japan in June 2002, in North America in September 2002, and in Europe in October 2002. It was the first Castlevania game to be called "Castlevania" in Japan instead of "Akumajō Dracula".
Kojima Productions Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development studio founded in 2005 by video game designer Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series. The company was originally established as a subsidiary of Konami, located in Tokyo. The studio had just under 100 employees in 2005 but had grown to over 200 people for the development of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In 2015, the company was temporarily disbanded, after Kojima left Konami. In December 2015, Kojima's employment contract with Konami was officially terminated, and he reformed the company as an independent studio, located in Shinagawa.
Koji Igarashi is a Japanese video game producer, programmer, writer and creative director. Often credited as Iga, he began his career by joining Konami in 1990 as a programmer. Over the next ten years, he moved into a senior role within company, working on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as a programmer, writer, and assistant director. He later served as the lead producer on the Castlevania series, starting with Castlevania Chronicles in 1999 and ending with Castlevania: Harmony of Despair in 2011. During his time with Konami, he was also involved in other titles, such as Nano Breaker and Tokimeki Memorial. In 2014, Igarashi left Konami to later become the co-founder of Artplay, where he is working on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night.
Team Silent was a development group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET), responsible for the first four games in the Silent Hill franchise by Konami released from 1999 to 2004, with later titles developed by external Western companies such as Climax Studios, Double Helix Games and Vatra Games. According to composer Akira Yamaoka, Team Silent consisted of staff members that had failed at other projects and originally intended to leave the company before the first Silent Hill game turned out to be a success. According to a Silent Hill Homecoming artist, Team Silent was ultimately disbanded by Konami itself, because Konami wanted Western developers to make the games. KCET was merged into the parent company Konami in April 2005.
Atomic Games, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas, specializing in wargames. The company was founded by Keith Zabalaoui in 1989, and is best known for developing the Close Combat series of real-time strategy video games, as well as the title V for Victory. In December 2000, due the cancellation of a project titled Hammer's Slammers, Atomic Games laid off its entire staff, only keeping three executives. Atomic Games was acquired by Destineer on May 6, 2005, while collaborating on Close Combat: Red Phoenix and Close Combat: First to Fight. Atomic Games was developing a third-person shooter, Six Days in Fallujah, in cooperation with Konami, until the latter decided to withdraw from the project in August 2009, causing significant layoffs at Atomic Games. The company went on to finish the game, but never released it. Atomic Games released the game called Breach, which is a multiplayer-only downloadable first-person shooter. Destineer also owned Bold Games, and MacSoft, who also went down with Destineer
Steve Fawkner is an Australian video game designer, programmer, and composer. He created the Warlords game series in 1989 and more recently the Puzzle Quest series.
Saw, also known as Saw: The Video Game, is a survival horror video game that was developed by Zombie Studios and published by Konami for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The game was released on October 6, 2009, in North America and later that year in other regions. The Microsoft Windows version was released on October 22, 2009. Part of the Saw film franchise, the game is set between the first and second films.
