Tag Archives: metal gear solid 4

According to this V for Videogames piece, a Sony rep has said the company expects Killzone 2 sales to be as good, if not better than Metal Gear Solid 4.

“It would be a lie to say Sony has not invested heavily in Killzone 2 and each individual at Guerilla games has worked even harder to satisfy any expectations kept by the company and their loyal community,” said the rep.

“I do see the game breaking a barrier with a huge variety of groups and expect it to see sales as good as Metal Gear Solid 4 if not beyond it.”

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Back in June, Amazon.com sold out of the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle in just in just seven minutes flat for a price of $599. Now, just four months later, Wal-mart is selling the same “limited edition” bundle for just $399.

So, time to start weighing up whether buying a PlayStation 3 with Metal Gear Solid 4 four months ago was worth $200 of your hard-earned or not.

We’re not saying anything.

By Mike Bowden

Konami’s announced a $232.8 million profit for the first half of the year, with the firm’s video game business posting $268 million in operating income.

More than 4 million units of MGS4 – more than a third of total game sales – were sold in the period, with the games division pulling in about $950 million in revenue.

That’s “healthy.” More on Kotaku.

Following the release of a Metal Gear Solid 4 demo in Japan today, the free test is now available for download on the European PSN.

The demo’s there now on the UK PS Store, and we’re reliably informed by VG247 reader Syrok that it’s available in Holland as well.

The download will afford you a run through the game’s first Mid-Eastern level.

So go get it.

Konami’s announced that Metal Gear Online has more than 1 million “members” worldwide.

To commemorate the milestone, the company is to launch the imaginatively titled, Metal Gear Online: Commemorative Campaign.

Beginning on November 25, those who access the game will receive award points, which can be used to buy new online gear from the “in-game reward shop.”

Press release after the break.

More »

As you can see on Amazon, the MGS4 special edition PS3 is now available for pre-order ahead of a November 4 launch.

Yours for a piffling $449.99. Assuming you live in America.

Thanks, PS3F.

According to this Gamecyte report, MorningStar has replaced a TGS quote attributed to a Konami rep saying the firm was looking at porting MGS4 to 360.

The story says that the amended piece “now quotes a different Konami representative and mentions entirely different game series (Winning Eleven 2009 and Castlevania) to back up their thesis that companies are leaning towards multiplatform release.”

More through there. This will never, ever die.

Scooparama. MCV’s posted a quote from Xbox Live boss John Schappert saying 360 has enough grunt to handle MGS4.

“I can’t speak on behalf of Konami, but I can shed more light on the fact that we definitely have the power to run MGS4,” he said.

“I’m certainly in the fan club that would love to see Kojima-san’s masterpiece come our way,” Schappert added. “It would be wonderful to play Metal Gear Solid on the Xbox. It could become another of the many franchises that started their life on another console that are now coming our way.

“There are a lot of recent examples that are in true high-def on our platform and aren’t on PS3. We’ve got an amazing amount of horsepower and graphics power.”

This is so happening. More through the link.

Speaking to Techradar, Future mag editors Jon Hicks and Dan Dawkins have expressed little shock at potential Konami plans to being MGS4 to 360.

“After the massive success of GTA IV on Xbox 360, and the recent announcement of previously Playstation exclusives Final Fantasy and Tekken 6 coming to the platform, it’d be no surprise for Konami to follow suit,” said OXM editor Hicks.

“The huge install base of the console, particularly in the US, means it’s missing out on lots of customers by sticking to the PS3. Of course, Konami has ported MGS for other platforms before – the real news would be if it launched the next game in the series on the Xbox as well as the PS3.”

PSM3 editor Dawkins added: “Capcom have already sounded the death knell for third-party exclusives, since the rising costs of next-gen development, and the relatively small user bases of both consoles, mean they make no financial sense.

“Will MGS4 go to Xbox 360? If pressed, I’d say yes, almost certainly ,” says the PlayStation mag Editor, “though Konami may release it as a ‘vanilla’ port with zero enhancements at the same time as they confirm the extended edition for PS3, a bit like MGS3 Subsistence.”

More through the link.

Japanese investment research firm MorningStar has published a paper from TGS quoting a Konami rep saying the firm is looking at moving MGS4 to 360.

We did actually tell you about this in July, but there we are.

“We’re actively looking into a release for the Xbox 360,” the spokesperson apparently said.

Obviously, this sort of flies in the face of Hideo Kojima’s constant claims that the game isn’t possible on the Microsoft machine because it doesn’t have Blu-ray.

We’ll put it another way: “Would you like $500 million, Konami and Microsoft?”

More on IGN.

Ex-Metal Gear 4 associate producer Ryan Payton – and all his hats – has been confirmed as a hire to the internal Microsoft Halo team by Phil Spencer, Edge reports.

Spencer’s also confirmed that Corrine Yu, formerly of Gearbox Software, and her husband, former id artist Kenneth Scott are definitely on the crew.

The exec said in a statement, “Microsoft Game Studios is thrilled to have such talented people working to develop new and exciting projects within the Halo universe and supporting existing projects from studios like Bungie and Ensemble.”

More through the link.

Speaking to Videogamer, Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd said that Hideo Kojima should limit his cut-scenes to 30 minutes. You tell him, Ben.

“I liked Metal Gear Solid 4, with the exception of the story,” he said.

“I like Kojima’s stories, but they keep getting longer and longer. He needs to put the clamps on himself and only give himself 30 minutes. If he did that I’m sure they’d be fantastic.”

More through the link.

There’s a feature on SoftImage’s website detailing how the software was used to animate Snake and friends in Metal Gear Solid 4. It’s fascinating stuff, if pretty hardcore, and has pretty pictures to boot.

Perfect coffee fodder. Thanks, Kotaku.

Both Kotaku and Shacknews are rumouring that MGS4 producer Ryan Payton has been signed as creative director on Halo Chronicles, the Peter Jackson-developed Halo title.

Payton recently left Kojima Productions to return to the US, citing family issues.

Hit the links for more.

MGS4 assistant producer Ryan Payton’s spilled a pretty big can of beans in this 1UP interview, saying that the MGS trilogy on PS2 was never meant to be continued.

“The stories of MGS2 and MGS3 were truly written without any backup measures if the series continued, leaving dozens of confusing and unexplained plot elements in the wake,” he told the site.

“The fact that we were able to tie up all the loose ends with MGS4 was nothing short of a miracle.”

Payton left Kojima Productions after the launch of MGS4, citing family reasons.

Heaps more through there. Even on a cursory glance, it appears to contain a huge amount of spoilers, so be warned.

Speaking on Konami’s Japanese site, Hideo Kojima has said that big business is knocking this shit out of creative games development. Which is probably a bit of a shame.

“The creativity of video games is now on the verge of crisis,” he said.

“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.”

You go, Hideo. Um. Didn’t MGS4 have a giant ad campaign?

Thanks to Kotaku for the translation.

Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions, now unemployed in Seattle, thinks the sun is setting on high-end game development in The Land Of The Rising Sun.

“The Japanese public seems to be disinterested in next-gen and high definition gaming,” he told Kotaku. “There is a stigma still attached to western technology there.”

“There have been a lot of good mainstream games built for the Japanese Xbox 360,” he continued. “But they only sold a small number of copies. I think that kind of drained a lot of expectations.”

Most telling, however, are the panicked reactions of those who hedged their bets on “next-gen” gaming.

“It’s apparent, everyone knows it in Japan,” he said. “The developers here feel the pressure. They’re starting to develop more with the West in mind and the tech is in the West now. I’m surprised at how many titles have been produced on the Unreal 3 Engine.”

More poignant commentary, along something about hobos, through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

Speaking to Eurogamer at Games Convention, Hideo Kojima said he’s had enough of people asking about MGS4 on 360. Not entirely surprising, really.

“I’ve been doing a lot of interviews and stage shows, and half the questions are like ‘Will MGS4 be coming out on 360 or other formats?’, and in the near future I hope they’ll ask me about Metal Gear, about us, about our future projects, and will stop caring about the hardware,” he said.

Pressed on MGS4′s exclusivity and the possibility of an Xbox 360 port, Kojima reiterated that the PS3 had been chosen because he believed that the series’ success had been entwined with PlayStation’s, and admitted that “because MGS4 was optimised for the PS3 it is probably not possible”.

“But, you know, what kind of disturbs me sometimes, because a lot of people ask me about this PS3/360 question, is that it’s not about the hardware – I want people to look at the game itself. Sometimes I even feel like it should be on a PC so that people don’t ask me about hardware and platforms,” he said.

MGS5 CONFIRMED FOR PC. There’s a full interview here.

According to this Kotaku post, Metal Gear assistant producer Ryan Payton has quit Kojima Productions, citing family reasons.

“Back when I joined Kojima Productions in 2005, I hit the ground running and didn’t stop until we shipped Metal Gear Solid 4,” he said. “Then, for the first time in three years, I wasn’t working on any games and I had a three month vacation ahead of me.

“I went back home to my family’s place in Washington state and literally three weeks after MGS4 launched we were hit with some pretty heavy news concerning my mom. I don’t think I need to go into details, but all of this has reminded me about how important family is. So this past month I decided to leave Kojima Productions and look to continue my career working closer to my family in North America.

“It’s not easy leaving my other family (the MGS team), but with everybody taking time off and not having any other big projects to shift focus to, it feels like this is how it’s supposed to be. It’s fate.”

And yes, he does mention MGS5 over there. We salute you, Ryan. Best of luck.

Speaking to Kikizo at E3, Konami creative legend Hideo Kojima admitted that he may well end up producing a fifth Metal Gear game. Never saw that coming.

“When we look ten years into the future, maybe yes, I may well end up spending more time on the Metal Gear series,” he said.

“I always intend to stay true to these statements; I do always say what I actually feel at that time, after each Metal Gear, when I say I am going to move on to the next project.

“But it’s like when Hayao Miyazaki says he is not going to do more, and then always ends up doing it.”

There’s a full interview here.