Tag Archives: mgs4

According to this and numerous other reports, a Sony PR rep has seemingly confirmed that the upcoming MGS4 bundle announced last night by SCEA will feature limited PS2 backwards compatability.

“Yes, similar to the Motorstorm bundle, the new MGS4 bundle features an 80GB PS3 with some PS2 backwards compatibility,” said the spokesperson.

There’s no news on which PS2 titles will be playable on the machine, and there’s still no firm release date for the bundle. We’re waiting to hear from SCEE as to whether or not we’re going to see something similar in Europe.

A June 12 release date for MGS4 is being rumoured here. The news has apparently come from a retailer conference. Don’t expect any confirmation from Konami until its German office is good and ready to give it.

Oh dear. According to this, MGS4 isn’t going to be on show at GDC. Which is a bit odd, if you think about it, considering the game was at CES last month and Konami’s said it’s nearly finished.

It’s Ryan Payton saying it’s not going to be there in that podcast, the guy that apparently didn’t tell a Reuters journalist that Konami needed to sell a million copies of the game on day one to recoup dev costs.

Probably not best to read anything into it, or stick your PS3 on eBay just yet.

Oh dear. Kojima Productions associate producer Ryan Payton has gone on the record and said that the widely reported quote attributed to him by Reuters journalist Kemp Powers (real name?) last year, which said that Konami needed to shift a million units of MGS4 on day one, isn’t correct.

The original piece said, “Payton said the new ‘Metal Gear Solid’ needs to sell over a million copies on the first day it goes on sale due to its costly production, but that may be a tough mark to hit given sluggish PS3 sales.”

Payton begs to differ. Speaking in this podcast, he said, “That million dollar figure is incorrect. I don’t even know how many figures we’d need to sell to be profitable. More importantly, that’s not something you really talk about in an interview. It’s nothing I’d ever say. It could’ve been something like, ‘You guys need to sell at least a million copies to be profitable, right?’ ‘Well, yeah, that sounds about right.’ Worldwide, obviously, right? I don’t think that’s too controversial, but it blew up. I’ve been trying to contact Kemp Powers over at Reuters to see, I don’t know if he recorded it on tape, but I’d love to hear it. So we can set the record straight.”

We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again. Learn how to say “off the record” very loudly when you’re speaking to mainstream journalists, naive development types. Thanks, Kotaku.

The rumoured Metal Gear Solid: Essential Collection for PS2 isn’t rumoured after all, and is now available fro pre-order at Gamestop in the US. There’s no word on a European launch, and quick look round Amazon UK, GAME and Play shows nothing but old Metal Gear games.

The pack is thought to include all previous MGS titles, including the Substance and Substinence versions of the second and third games respectively.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian reckons console gaming’s going to be the hot story of the first half of 2008 thanks to GTA IV, MGS 4 and DMC 4, whereas PC titles will be the talk of the back half of the year, with the launch of WoW: Wrath of the Lich King, Spore and Starcraft II.

His view reinforces Mike Hickey’s view yesterday that Will Wright’s Spore is likely to move towards the back of the year. EA’s issuing figures for its third quarter tomorrow, so we may hear something on that then.