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