Michael Crider
Konami is a legendary game developer and publisher. Metal Gear, Castlevania, Contra, Silent Hill—its back catalog is one of the best in the industry. Konami’s also notable for being one of the most hated companies in the industry by gamers themselves, after recent years of questionable publishing practices and anti-consumer monetization strategies. Now Konami is making gaming PCs. Huh.
The news broke from Konami’s Japanese website, showing off three models of “Arespear” gaming PCs at three different price points. The ATX cases look neat (at least I think so), though their prices are pretty high. The bottom-rung system with a year-old Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a mid-range GTX 1650 is 184,800 yen (about $1750). A comparable pre-built gaming PC from CyberPower is just $850. The higher-tiered machines aren’t priced any better, but there are also Arespear-branded keyboards and headsets.
Exactly why the prices are so high isn’t clear—maybe those fancy cases take a lot of dough to manufacture. Konami isn’t a stranger to the game hardware, um, game: much of the company’s operations now come from manufacturing slot machines, pachinko machines, and other gambling devices. It’s unusual for a game publisher to sell gaming PCs itself, though branded partnerships are pretty common.
While Konami’s console, mobile, and PC game publishing has slowed down quite a bit in recent years, they’ve invested in new development as recently as last month. All three of the company’s Arespear PCs are up for pre-order now. Don’t expect to see these sold outside of Japan, at least not anytime soon.
