Product Manager reveals lessons learned from Hudson Entertainment’s demise

Hudson Entertainment is being shut down by parent company Konami, and H.E.’s product and brand manager shared some of his thoughts about the situation and how it came about.

“…stifled collaboration seems to be hampering the chances of success…”

Hudson Entertainment was Hudson Soft’s North American publishing division, responsible for bringing games from Japan to the U.S. (among other things).

According to PM Morgan Haro:

The act of producing and developing a game in Japan, and then bringing that game over to the US to compete in an increasingly competitive market is more and more an incredibly tough proposition.

A challenge in itself to be sure, but to compound the issue, minimal communication and stifled collaboration seems to be hampering the chances of success. […]

By the time we had received the game design document for any given title, development was more than likely well underway, usually past the point of the dev team able to make any major changes.

Sound familiar?

I’ve worked for companies headquartered in the U.S. but operated in different countries

so I can vouch that it ain’t easy.

But even if you haven’t had that experience, I’d wager that most PMs have experienced a product that was developed without their input, without customer input, which ultimately failed in the marketplace.

On a personal level, that can be majorly disappointing. Repeat it too many times, and it can bring down a company.