Police in Tokyo have arrested a 16-year-old high school student accused of making bomb threats to the video game publisher Konami, and threatening to kill employees. Multiple threats were made over a three-day period last month, in which the suspect claimed that he would “blow up Konami’s headquarters.” The threats were discovered in the reviews section for Konami’s mobile game PES 2020, the latest iteration in the company’s Pro Evolution Soccer series. According to the Japanese outlet Yomiuri (translated by Kotaku), the student has confessed to making the threats, as he was upset over a bug in the game.
Konami headquarters is located in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Founded in 1969, the company is one of the largest video game companies in the world, and responsible for a number of beloved franchises. Outside of Pro Evolution Soccer, Konami is responsible for Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Bomberman, Dance, Dance Revolution, and Castlevania. The company has also produced a number of popular licensed games, including arcade titles based on X-Men, The Simpsons, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While Konami is mostly known outside of Japan for its video games, over the last few years, the company has significantly scaled back that department, focusing instead on its various casino-related offerings.
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Since then, Konami’s video games have mostly focused on mobile titles and compilations, including options like Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Contra Anniversary Collection. Longtime fans of the company have been clamoring for new releases, but those requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears, particularly as the cost of video game development has steadily risen. Recently, fans of the company’s Silent Hill franchise were ecstatic when characters and elements from the series were added to Dead by Daylight. Some hoped this might lead to a new game in the series from Konami, but there has been no news about additional Silent Hill projects, since.
This is not the first time that bomb threats have been made against the gaming company. In 2017, a threat was received by mail at the company’s headquarters, alleging that bombs had been planted at various Konami Sports Club locations. After a police investigation, those threats turned out to be a hoax.
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