Metal Gear Solid 4 Goes Solid Gold; Launch and Product Promotions Revealed
At a press event held in Tokyo yesterday, Konami revealed that production has wrapped on Metal Gear Solid 4 and the game is on track for its June 12 release date, reports Gamespot.
The game’s director and iconic devloper Hideo Kojima took to the stage to offer the good news. “I’m very happy that we can announce the completion of MGS4 in front of everyone here today,” he said. “MGS4 has been an extremely difficult project. At one point, it was like an eternal spiral where the game felt like it would never get completed no matter how hard we worked on it.”
Kojima took the opportunity to speak about the challenges the team faced during the four years the game was in development. “We were challenged to make MGS4 on the Cell-processor-operated, unknown monster of a hardware called the PlayStation 3. We were challenged to make MGS4 in high definition graphics and 5.1 surround sound so that it’d play in the leagues of movies. We were challenged to give MGS4 the most [content] in the series, and so we had the largest number of developers working [on the franchise] ever. We were challenged to release the game simultaneously worldwide for the first time. And, we were challenged to make it the last title in the series, as the game will be the conclusion to the Metal Gear Saga.”
Kojima then had a few choice words for the gaming industry at large, particularly the prevalence of more mainstream games.
“Casual games have become mainstream in the industry,” he declared. “It’s not just a Japanese phenomenon but also something that’s happening worldwide. There are new markets and possibilities opening up thanks to the trend, which is great. But on the other hand, we shouldn’t forget about the hardcore gamers whose lives are about videogames. The gamers who consider video games a subculture, and enjoy taking their time to sit down and play games that gives them energy and courage.”
“I wanted to remind those gamers about the fun of video games,” he went on. “I know that we’re going against the trend, but we’ve been working hard for the past four years so that the fire [of non-casual games] won’t blow out. We developed MGS4 for fans that love Metal Gear. But at the same time, I was creating it with some hopes to stir a revival of [non-casual] videogames.”
That point was expanded upon by Konami Digital Entertainment president Fumiaki Tanaka.
“While it’s said that the current mainstream is casual games, we took the challenge to make a blockbuster title, Metal Gear Solid 4,” said Tanaka. “Metal Gear Solid 4 surpasses the scale of its previous titles in all aspects, including their story, visuals, and music. Using the PlayStation 3’s high capabilities to its capacity, I believe that our developers have realized MGS4 without any compromise.”
Konami has worked some high-profile brands and products into the game, including Apple’s iPod, Triumph Motorcycle’s Bonneville T100, Sony
Ericsson’s W62S cell phone, and popular Japanese products like Regain energy drink and Ga-ko, a duck-shaped alarm clock.
The game’s two-disc soundtrack will be released on May 28 and a novelization of Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots will be released in Japan June 12. A novel based on the original Metal Gear Solid will be released at the end of May in both the United States and Japan.
Konami has a worldwide promotional tour planned for the game, as Kojima and his team travel between Europe, Asia, and North America to promote the game leading up to its release in June.
