Atari breaks Konami bond down under

With no local Konami office in Australia, the Japanese publisher has long had to rely on a distribution partnership with the Australian arm of Atari to get its games to store shelves. In fact, Atari has been distributing Konami games, such as the Metal Gear Solid series, down under for the past 10 years. That partnership will soon come to an end, however, with Atari Australia today confirming that it was discontinuing its current relationship with Konami.

The move comes as a result of the September announcement that Namco Bandai had entered into a new partnership with Atari parent company Infogrames, which will see Namco acquiring a 34 percent stake in Infogrames' European and Asian distribution operations. For Australians, that meant that Atari received exclusive rights to distribute all Namco Bandai games locally.

The Atari/Konami partnership won't end straight away, however. Atari Australia managing director Gerard Noonan said his company would continue to distribute Konami's existing back catalogue in 2009.

An Atari spokesperson also confirmed to GameSpot AU that Atari will still distribute the upcoming platinum edition of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which is due to hit store shelves in the first quarter of next year.

More interestingly, the spokesperson confirmed that the recently banned Silent Hill: Homecoming was still definitely planned for release down under, with Konami now looking at how the game's violence can be toned down to accommodate Australian censorship laws. Australia's Classification Board banned Homecoming in September this year due to the high nature impact of its violence. In Australia, the highest rating available for a game is MA15+, as opposed to other forms of media, such as film or DVDs, which have an R18+ classification (the R rating prohibits sales to anyone under the age of 18).

Kunio Neo, president of Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH said: “It’s been great working with Atari Australia. Atari conducts an outstanding distribution operation, and we have had many great years together. We part company as good friends, and I wish Gerard and his team continued success in Australia.”

No word yet on who will be distributing Konami products down under, but stay tuned to GameSpot for more updates.