Last April, Konami bought a majority share in the Japanese game development studio Hudson Soft. Less than a year on, Konami is dissolving the studio.
Konami has had shares in Hudson Soft since 2001, but the complete buy-out only happened a year ago when the studio behind games like Bomberman, Bonk, Star Soldier, the Mario Party series and Adventure Island had been struggling.
During a meeting on January 12, Hudson board members agreed that the company should be absorbed into Konami Digital Entertainment, which means that as of March 1, Hudson will cease to exist.
Konami has not confirmed what it intends to do with Hudson’s franchises, although what is certain is that this is an end of a chapter for one of the Japanese game industry’s veterans.
PuppyLicks
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 9:45 AMSad that Hudson will be absorbed, but at least the Hudson employees will become Konami employees and not jobless.
I’ll take a studio absorption over a studio shutdown any day.
Kyonove
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 9:48 AMI have not played a Bomberman game in years, but, i can’t help but feel sad about this.
I spent many an hour with Super Bomberman 1&2, and many, many more with their multilayer modes. Good fun.
N3RD1001101
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:01 AMMega Bomberman on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis…
…yes folks i still play it… There hasnt been a decent bomberman game since!
Stephen
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:01 AMI think Bomberman officially died after that horrible Xbox 360 release they will proberly kill/sell all these titles except Mario Party is my guess.
MrTaco
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:31 AMI actually bought that… I saw it for $5 on clearance at Harvey Norman last year and couldn’t resist for lol value alone.
Then I fired up and it was actually surprisingly ok to play. Spent a good couple of hours sitting there trying to make my way as far through as possible.
As for the news, pretty saddening. Especially considering what usually happens to Konami games over there (Euro imports with a heavy premium on the pricetag. Or at least has been the case with their DS games).
Daniel
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:05 AMI still have a lot of love for the Bomberman series despite some lackluster or low-production titles in the last few years. I really hope Konami keeps this franchise alive despite the loss of Hudson.
blaze0041
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:30 AMI loved the Mario Party games, I wonder what will happen to them now?
Lachlan
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:46 AMNo! Now there will never be a return of the TurboGraphix 16!!!
Xuchiex
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:44 AMi played a copy originally on my Amiga 500 and it was called dynabalster not bomber man but same game thought loved it so much
Zac
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 1:12 PMWell I really hope Mario Party still continues to come out since it was one of my favourite franchises as a kid. It’s sad that Hudson is shutting down, but hopefully they will have a lot of input on future Konami games.
+thank goodness the employees are getting absorbed and not kicked out on the street.
RainMachine
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 8:31 PMAgreed. I remember playing the Pedal Power minigame constantly on the first as a kid, blistering and then removing the skin from the inside of my hand whilst rotating the control stick frantically.
Sleeper
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 1:39 PMAh, you forgot one of the greatest games they ever made.
Kirby’s Canvas Curse, was the game that really brought the DS out of its slump.
It was flurping amazing.
[Razor]
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 1:49 PMAwww dude Hudson made that? KCC was bloody awesome. I won it in a Tetris DC comp at AVCON and I played the hell out of it. So good.