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Hudson becomes a Konami Subsidiary

by Michael Cole - April 11, 2005, 1:15 pm EDT
Total comments: 6 Source: Konami

Konami announces its acquisition of additional Hudson shares, making it Hudson's majority stockholder.

Konami revealed its new position as majority stockholder of Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. today on its Japanese website.

After dismal fiscal year for Hudson, the software company turned to its primary stockholder, Konami, to improve its fiscal situation. Hoping to "strengthen Hudson's net worth," Konami agreed to purchase 3 million new shares to raise its ownership of Hudson from forty-five percent to fifty-four percent.

Hudson is now a consolidated subsidiary of Konami, and the parent company will oversee the developer's reorganization. Hudson currently provides Nintendo (which owns 1.23% of Hudson) with games and software development tools. Whether Konami's increased investment will influence Hudson's relations with Nintendo is unknown.

Talkback

Ian SaneApril 11, 2005

This might not be good for Nintendo. In past experiences this gen Nintendo-friendly company + not Nintendo-friendly company = not Nintendo-friendly company. Square was back with Nintendo but then they merged with Enix, who only supports the market leader, and suddenly Square is GONE with no traces of Cube support. Sega was reasonably friendly with Nintendo, or at least certain Sega teams were. Then they merged with Sammy and Sega's Cube support just dropped like a rock. Hudson is very buddy-buddy with Nintendo. Konami is not, to the point where they would sabotage the sales of their own Cube exclusive because it might hurt PS2 MGS3 sales. With Konami pulling the strings we might not see any more Hudson support on Nintendo consoles for the immediate future (or meaningful support anyway).

Of course that could mean no more Mario Party. YEAH! But aside from that Hudson made Bomberman and they were a Nintendo ally so losing them would suck nonetheless. Even if they were just used for Mario Party they could have been used for something else and now they might not be able to. A loss is a loss and Nintendo needs third parties staying aboard for the Rev.

So I guess the mission now is to get Konami support. Easier said than done but it would be pretty worthwhile.

FamicomApril 11, 2005

Didn't Hudson Soft make SSB/M and Kirby as well? They're still Ninty properties but it would suck to lose the developers of those. I'd much prefer to think we'd get some of the popular Konami characters in the next installment of SSB instead. face-icon-small-smile.gif

GoldenPhoenixApril 11, 2005

Hey no ripping on the MP series, they are great with family and friends. This could be a good thing for that series though since Nintendo may either continue the series themselves or give it to someone else, which could mean a step up for the franchise.

Flames_of_chaosLukasz Balicki, Staff AlumnusApril 11, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: Famicom
Didn't Hudson Soft make SSB/M and Kirby as well? They're still Ninty properties but it would suck to lose the developers of those. I'd much prefer to think we'd get some of the popular Konami characters in the next installment of SSB instead. face-icon-small-smile.gif



Thats HAL your thinking of Famicom, HAL is a Nintendo 2nd party. One of HAL's past presidents was Mr. Iwata which obviously is the current Nintendo president.

Infernal MonkeyApril 11, 2005

So what, Bomberman card game in the works now?

This better not screw up UbiSoft's plans to publish Bomberman DS

Flames_of_chaosLukasz Balicki, Staff AlumnusApril 11, 2005

Infernal I dont think it would screw up Ubi's publishing deal because of licensing to publish.

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