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C'mon Kojima: Port Metal Gear!

Posted by Bob Mackey

As things currently stand, I'm probably never going to play Metal Gear Solid 4. The reason? I simply don't have the money or real estate for a PS3.  I'm a big Metal Gear Solid fan, so this situation is not entirely wonderful for me; but I've come to accept my fate and stay out of the console wars.  However, a recent post on the Kojima Productions web site may justify any possible whining over the platform-exclusivity of Solid Snake.

From Kojima Himself:

The creativity of video games is now on the verge of crisis. Massive advertising campaigns are executed for games before their entertainment values are put into consideration all too often, resulting in sell-off tactics happening without hesitation. [Translation via Kotaku]

Kojima's complaint has everything to do with the fact that MGS4 just isn't selling as well as he hoped it would in his native country. Sales are by no means terrible, but a game of MGS4's budget and caliber shouldn't be moving less than a million copies.  And a large amount of that budget--as Kojima claims--was spent on an expensive advertising campaign, making it even more difficult to turn a profit.  Porting the game to the 360 probably wouldn't give the game much of a sales bump in Japan, who only really cares about Microsoft's system when some exclusive RPG surfaces in a green DVD case, but I guarantee that this decision would bring in a lot of money from America.

Part of this speculation comes out of my desire to just play the damned game, but you have to admit that third party console exclusivity is making less and less sense this generation, especially with expensive games like Kojima's. Just look at the way things are going in America: this gen's Grand Theft Auto had no window of exclusivity on either system, and it's gone on to sell around 10 million copies. How much smaller would this number be if PS3 or 360 owners were still waiting to get their hands on the game?  Even Square-Enix, who has been developing Final Fantasy XIII for what feels like the greater part of this century, dropped their exclusivity window for the States and will simultaneously launch both PS3 and 360 versions of their long-awaited RPG at some point in the distant future.

Why have Square-Enix and Rockstar made these decisions? Because they want money. So why you gotta hold out on us, Kojima?  I've got 60 bucks with your name on it.

Related Links:

The 61FPS Review: Metal Gear Solid 4 Part 1
Kojima's In Another World
Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Roto13 said:

Didn't he reaffirm that Metal Gear Solid 4 was going to stay a PS3 exclusive really recently? He said something about being sick and tired of people asking him about it all the time. *searches*

www.joystiq.com/.../kojima-tired-of-questions-about-mgs4-on-xbox-360

September 10, 2008 8:19 PM

Bob Mackey said:

Yes, but my post was a combination of wishful thinking and "stranger things have happened."

September 10, 2008 9:07 PM

Charlie said:

How many DVDs would MG4 span if ported to the 360? It'd have to have one thick ass case.

September 11, 2008 5:05 AM

Demaar said:

Well, Lost Odyssey was 4 discs and it had 5 languages for all of its spoken dialogue, so probably less than that.

September 18, 2008 1:57 AM

Demaar said:

Forgot to mention that a BD rom holds less space than 4 DVD-9s.

September 18, 2008 1:58 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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