Konami might not be making new games, but it's now publishing them

Konami pulls another strange move by publishing a smaller-scale platformer called Skelattack on consoles and PC.

Konami is pretty much done making new AAA games. Instead of developing and releasing big hits like Metal Gear Solid, Konami is leaning hard on mobile, pachinko, and annualized PES Soccer games. This plan is actually working quite well and Konami is far from the red; the company earned $2.4 billion in revenue last year, and $188 million in profit.

Now Konami is leaning into the diverse indie games market in an effort to "pursue and build a catalog of Western and domestic market titles." In a surprise announcement, Konami confirmed it's publishing Skelattack, a new cartoonish indie platformer from Ukuza.

"We instantly fell in love with Skelattack's concept, aesthetic, and style and felt this would be a perfect fit for our audience," said Michael Rajna, Senior Director of Business Development & Licensing, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "It is rare that we find such a partner in the Indie Game space but Ukuza proves talent that knows no bounds, and we will continue to consider new projects like this in our portfolio moving forward."

Despite the charming style and old-school platforming action, there's some criticism with Skelattack. Users are saying it's pretty short (roughly ~4 hours) and that it's a straight platformer without any Meotroidvana-style exploration or puzzlers. It's also priced at a steep $20 on Steam, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

This move makes sense for Konami and is relatively low risk. The company is very, very risk-averse when it comes to games releases these days, and if anything we'll see Konami license out its new IPs rather than investing hundreds of millions on huge AAA endeavors. Licensing like, say, the Silent Hill franchise to Sony Japan Studios...