It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

A place to post news and also give your ideas about the future of the Suikoden series.
Please justify all speculations with reasons why you think such an event could happen.
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Vextor
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Vextor »

Xelinis wrote:Vextor has had direct dealings with Konami in the past, namely with that petition from way back in 2001; his input on this would be beneficial.
There isn't much I can add. It's best for newer, more energetic people to do this sort of stuff. I've been involved with similar initiatives in the past, and Konami has often responded with similar messages and promises of "we will take the views of you and others into consideration" etc, and perhaps it had an effect but who knows. The petition including 6000 signatures with real names and addresses was about releasing the gaiden outside Japan, releasing Suikoden 3 in PAL regions, and improving translation quality. Did those things happen?

So yes, I can only think of discouraging things so best that I keep quiet.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by KC_MCDOHL »

Well, not to take away from your amazing achievment, 'cause if it was me who collected 6000 signatures, I'd probably feel like a legend, or an actual Tenkai Star lol! But 6000 really isn't enough to raise too many eyebrows at Konami. 6000 only represents a fraction of the sales figures they would be influenced by. Also, after the signatures where sent off, did you stop there (with your campaigning)? Obviously we never heard any news about them translating the Gaidens, nor did we get better translation qaulity, so did you pirsue Konami to find out why and keep pressing for the changes?

I'm not insinuating you never, I'm genuinly interested to find out if you did?
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Vextor
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Vextor »

Oh yes, back then Konami was a bit more open and I had regular contact with some of their people, mainly in the sales office. However, my e-mails were often routed to the Suikoden team, because Ishikawa told me she has read my e-mails. I also bugged KDE (Konami in USA) and had a German friend of mine translate an e-mail for me so I can send it to Konami of Europe. Konami of Europe was the most honest, as they said they had no plans at all to release Suikoden 3 in the European market. KDE was pretty vague, saying they have no idea, and that Konami Ltd. hasn't informed them of anything regarding Gaiden localization.

Konami Ltd themselves were the most elusive. They always send nice e-mails, but it never progressed beyond that.
After a while, they changed their e-mail address and that was the end of it. Perhaps I pushed them too much, but who knows.

When Konami contacted me for Tierkreis promotion, I had some hope but after they responded to fan's questions with little more than marketing bites, I gave up again.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by KC_MCDOHL »

Wow, that truly is amazing :)

Things still seem the same these days with Konami Ltd themselves bieng the most elusive. I have contact with members of the Suikoden team, which is really inspirational, but it seems more and more that its the actual executives behind the buisiness decisions at Konami Ltd that I should be seeking out. This is proving pretty difficult, however, but I won't give up.

Yea, the Teirkries promotion thing was a bit of a let down wasn't it? They answered the questions with what seemed like little care at all. One the one hand, it angered me that they only now decided to get in touch with the Western fan base after all these years. But on the other hand, it was a great thing that they did!

I think if more of us keep trying, and keep pushing, the way I am, then we can achieve some results. It may be ''too little too late'' but better now than never.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Rooks »

Yeah, I've always suspected that amongst the creative teams at Konami there are many who would love to see a Suikoden VI as much as we would. We've talked quite a bit about this before on other threads, but RPGs do cost a lot and a new console RPG could be something that Konami is not willing to try at this time.

I recently wrote a nine page essay, printed it out, and sent it off to KDE at the El Segundo, California office. One copy to the office of Development and one to the office of Marketing, asking about the current state of the Suikoden franchise and detailing how the production of a Suikoden VI would benefit the company. Really, I left out any kind of pleading and just wrote up the letter as a type of formal proposal, using logic and several examples from previous Konami games, other RPG titles, and even successful and unsuccessful business strategies employed by others in the entertainment industry, like Hollywood film companies.

There might be a good chance that I won't receive a reply, but it is better than just doing nothing on my part. If you want, I'll keep the good folks here at Suikosource posted on Konami's potential reply.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by KC_MCDOHL »

Yes, I have seen an extract from Rooks essay and it is highly proffessional. Even if you don't recieve a response, thats an excuse to keep sending it I say lol. I could try and find a way to have it proffessionaly translated and sent to the Japan offices if you wish?
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Antimatzist »

Vextor wrote:Konami of Europe was the most honest, as they said they had no plans at all to release Suikoden 3 in the European market.
Really? My experience with (the German department) of Konami of Europe was not so good. When Tierkreis was announced and everything, I started mailing them for information, website-updates and all that, and NEVER got a good reply, always "Thanks for your mail, we cannot say anything about this, please look at our website". This totally sucked, especially when it was just something like "When do you think will it be released?" or "Why don't you put something up your website? Isn't it getting a Eu release?"
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Raww Le Klueze »

I wonder if the 7 year difference could be a contributing factor to the different experiences? Things change. This was also a time when Suikoden was most popular, cancelling Suikoden III caused a lot of people to email them necessitating a response.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by KC_MCDOHL »

Okay guys, heres something we can (and should) all do. Go to this website and create an account: http://www.spoke.com/
Once registered, type Konami in the 'find - a company' section at the top right. You should get this list:

Konami Corporation http://www.konami.co.jp 212
Konami Gaming Inc http://www.konamigaming.com 144
Konami Digital Entertainment 23
Konami Of America http://www.konamiusa.com 35
Konami of Europe http://www.games.konami-europe.com 5
KONAMI Global http://www.konami.net 1
Konami Of America Inc. http://www.konami.com

Clicking on each comapny gives you a list of employees there (and their positions). Clicking on the 'see all' tab will give you a list of the employees that you can mail.

The only real companies worth contacting here are:

Konami Coorperation
Konami Of America
and Konami Digital Entertainment

I have contacted all three. I also contacted Konami Gaming Inc, I know its the totaly wrong department
(the Konami department affiliated with pachislot and casino games, NOT video games) but I did get a reply
from Steve Sutherland himself (thanks to Rooks for the advice:)

You get a limit of only 3 emails to send with a free Spoke account so choose them wisely. You are probably better contacting Konami Cooperation as that is the Japanese counterpart, but you are maybe better translating your emails if you can. The only response I have recieved so far was from Steve Sutherland
and, as I say, he is affiliated with a totaly different department, but I am sure they must read the emails.

If more of us do this, we are sure to create some notice.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Rooks »

Hey, I told KC_MCDOHL to contact Steve Sutherland back before I knew the difference between Konami Digital Entertainment and Konami Gaming. . . Who knew "Gaming" just referred to Casino gaming? Anyway, he is the guy to contact if you want another Suikoden pachislot machine, but he can't help us much with another console title.

If I don't receive a reply from Konami, I probably will send off my letter in the form of emails to various people. I have not have too much luck finding a translator, as most of the foreign students at my college are from other Asian countries, not Japan. But, yeah, when I do get the thing translated, I might email some of the Japanese executive staff, if I can find them.
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Vextor
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Vextor »

Raww Le Klueze wrote:I wonder if the 7 year difference could be a contributing factor to the different experiences? Things change. This was also a time when Suikoden was most popular, cancelling Suikoden III caused a lot of people to email them necessitating a response.
Yep, 7 years and the corporate culture would likely change. It's disappointing if Konami of Europe became more like Konami Ltd.

Also, bombarding employee e-mails can be effective if many people do it. It's also important to e-mail unrelated parts of Konami as well, because if only Konami Ltd is e-mailed, they may hide the fact and ignore it. If you e-mail other places, and include within the e-mail that you "also e-mailed Konami Gaming and Konami Digital Entertainment," they'll have fewer places to hide the fact. The best is if you can toss the information to some media outlet at the same time...
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Xelinis »

KC_MCDOHL, what exactly did Sutherland respond with? Was it the standard, "I'll let the appropriate departments know"?
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by KC_MCDOHL »

Clever thinking Vextor. I was thinking along the same lines as your media outlet idea but was a little confused where to start. Nevertheless, that will probably be one of my next steps.

Nah, the Steve Sutherland response was almost entirely a waste of time but it inspired me to keep going (he was the first persons i tried) as it was nice to have a direct email from someone of his status. I will copy and paste the emails below:

Dear Mr Sutherland,

As a dedicated fan since the release of the very first game in Konami's ''Genso Suikoden'' series, I would like to ask you, on behalf the fan base, if you have any news regarding either Suikoden VI, or the future of the Suikoden series?

I know you are probably the wrong department to be asking but my lack of knowledge about Konami executive members, and research leading to dead ends, has left me with little choice but to email yourself with this inquiry.

Compared to most other RPG's, the Suikoden fan base is insanely loyal and extremely expectant, not to mention ever growing. We feel we deserve to know if there is any plans whatsoever for the release of a Suikoden VI. I realise that this may be sensitive information, but we feel that we at least deserve to know if the future of our beloved series is a bright one? Fans of other RPG's would have given up and moved on to other franchises long ago. Suikoden fans, however, stick by this series we love so much and will most probably continue to do so. Please reward our loyalty with more information or atleast some fan communication.

I have sent several emails to the variety of worldwide standard Konami email addresses and all have replied with similar responses. Mainly the refusal to divulge any information whatsoever, let alone engage with the fanbase on a considerate level. I did expect this, of course, but would be forever elated if you could help me with this request personally? Alternatively, would it be possible to point me in the right direction of who to speak to exactly?

Any help you could give me would be gladly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Chris Holmes


Dear Mr. Holmes,



Unfortunately I cannot help you with your request. I work in a division of Konami that is not involved in the game sector of your request. I am involved directly in Konami’s casino industry business of the supply of slot machines and casino management systems to casinos such as those you would find in Las Vegas. Please note I do not involve myself in the matters of the other divisions of Konami.



As it relates to your trying to secure information on future game releases, I can only speculate that Konami may be withholding information for very valid reasons. In business there are a number of issues related to the commercialization and the protection of company assets. An inappropriate – early release of information can create competitive issues that are very costly for a company to overcome and remain a leader in the industry. For your specific matter though, I am not specifically aware of the particulars of this product though.



Sincerely,



Stephen Sutherland

EVP/COO


Dear Mr. Sutherland,

Thankyou very much for the speedy reply. I knew it was a long shot emailing yourself as you are head of a totaly different department. However, I thought speaking to someone who atleast has some status would be more beneficial than bieng brushed to the side by Konami's customer service desks.

It is not just information regarding future Suikoden installments that we desire (although you can't really blame us for trying), we also want to provide the Konami Suikoden team with an insight into what the fanbase would like, and expect, to see in future installments. This would be achieved first of all by gathering the opinions of as many fans as possible and then narrowing the list of 'ideas' down to then send off to Konami. Perhaps more importantly, and probably the main point of us wanting to contact Konami, is to establish a relationship with the creators of our beloved game series, to get the same sort of acknowledgement and appreciation that we give to the game ourselves. Suikoden fans are forever talking about, speculating, and giving 110% attention to the Suikoden franchise. We feel that we are justified in expecting the same sort of attention from Konami instead of years of long silences and little to no contact with their fanbase. Even some kind and respsectful words of appraisal would probably suffice ...we just want to know we haven't been forgotten about, because we ceratinly haven't forgotten about Suikoden.

I realise you are not the correct person to be addressing all this too, but is there any way whatsoever that you could point me to the direction of someone who would know? Or atleast point me to the direction of someone who would perhaps know exactly who else I should speak to?

Any help you could give me would be gladly appreciated

Kind Regards,

Chris Holmes
(and the entire Suikoden Western fanbase)


Chris,



My apologies but I do not interface with the other divisions. I have a singular focus on the casino industry that is a very distinct business.



Regards,



Steve Sutherland


Mr. Sutherland,

Okay Steve, no problem, thanks very much for your time.

Chris
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Ashietaka »

This is amazing, thank you guys for sharing everything. It makes me so happy to see dedication and the desire for Suikoden 6. Also, I'm very pleased to see lots of comments on Konami's facebook page asking about Suikoden now. I just can't believe it. Please everyone, do not give up. to see people commenting that they want another Suikoden game just as much or more then Metal Gear or other Konami games puts a huge smile on my face. Thank you Chris for your information and direction as to how to contact Konami. I hope everyone puts some effort into trying. I see lots of people are viewing this page, please write a comment with your thoughts. It's nice to hear what the fans have to say, and remember to be positive. I've only recently gotten into this, but it was just me pondering as to how cool it would be to have another Suikoden game, and how I miss the series, and then I looked around online and appeared here, and I think there's a lot of others that the same thing happened to. So lets all work together here.
On another note, how cool would that be if Konami actually did listen to the fans and got ideas from us like Capcom is doing for the next Mega Man legends 3 game. I think now is a good time for a new Suikoden game, people are speaking up, and RPG's seem to be popular again, there was a dry period, but it looks like they're making a comeback. Anyway, thanks everyone, and now lets hear your thoughts.
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Re: It's time to Ask Konami about Suikoden 6

Post by Xelinis »

KC_MCDOHL, how long did it take you to hear a response. Even though I'm still about skeptic about the effectiveness of this idea, I decided that I wasn't doing anything better so I fired off two emails; one to Hiroyuki Mizuno and another to Geoffrey Mulligan.
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