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Former Square Enix Boss Sides With Kojima, Calls Konami “Cruel”
I’ve come to enjoy poking fun at the handful of toddlers who currently run Konami. It’s been therapeutic, and more than that, it’s necessary. Companies do bad things all the time, but more often than not the culprit is corporate greed, general human stupidity, or a combination of the two.
Ubisoft releases a multiplayer game that doesn’t work for months after its release. Electronic Arts gives us a sequel to a cult classic that replaces the charm of the original with annoying “freemium” mechanics. Activision refuses to stop being Activision. Microtransactions, season passes, game-breaking bugs, delays, retailer-exclusive pre-order incentives.
This amazing industry has a seemingly endless supply of annoying quirks, and we’re all to blame. The publishers favor a profitable quarter over happy consumers, and we scold them for doing us wrong while we hand over more of our money.
Then there’s Konami.
The same company that gifted us with the Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Castlevania franchises has come undone this year. I will be forever grateful to Konami, which spent much of its decades-long run making some of the bravest and most narratively ambitious games I’ve ever played.
The cancellation of Silent Hills, the removal of the brilliant P.T. demo from the PlayStation Store, the unnecessary closure of Kojima Productions and their continued abuse of Hideo Kojima, who they recently prevented from accepting his own award at The Game Awards 2015.
Konami is a disgrace and they absolutely should be ashamed. They’ve raised the bar for assholery and simultaneously reached a new low. It’s gotten bad enough that the former head of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, had to speak up in this Facebook post (translated by Kotaku).
“As I know Mr. Kojima, I want to say, ‘I can’t believe this cruel treatment!’ But, here I’m going to give my thoughts as a corporate exec.”
“However you think about this, this is a negative for business.”
“Maybe leaving the home console market is management’s plan, but going out of your way to make enemies with the world has no meaning. Generally, this kind of thing happens when there’s a lack of leadership. I think, perhaps, there isn’t someone in charge who is paying attention and laying out all the little details for whole enterprise.”
“When you are not aware that the feelings of your own department aren’t aligned with the world at large, the results can be deplorable.”
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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