Metal Gear Solid 4: System Seller?

Metal Gear Solid 4 is just what long-time fans had hoped for. But is it really the kind of blockbuster hit that can move systems at a time when Sony needs the boost?

Fanservice extravaganza, Swan song for the series, proof of Kojima’s manic brilliance, epic postmodern critique of the military-industrial complex. MGS4 is all of these things, but it may not be the system-selling hit that Sony and Konami executives had planned for.

The first hour of Metal Gear Solid 4 contains more than half an hour of cutscenes. While the density of cutscene to actual gameplay relaxes a bit in the middle portion of the “game”, many gamers have rightfully pointed out that sometimes it feels as if they have spent more time watching than actually playing MGS4. It is unlikely that these arguably excessive cinematics will truly annoy the core Metal Gear Solid fanbase, however, considering that Kojima has always been keen on expository sequences since the Playstation 1. The press embargo that forbid reviewers from sharing details of the length of cutscenes was most likely devised by Sony and Konami execs, who feared that the information might alienate potential newcomers to the series before the game hit shelves.

Potential newcomers? Anyone who has played much of Guns of the Patriots knows that attracting new fans was not what Kojima had in mind when he devised the trippy, whirlwind conclusion to the series. Players who are not intimately familiar with the characters and plot twists spread over more than a decade of Metal Gear Solid lore will not get very much out of the storyline, and indeed many are likely to be turned off by Kojima’s characteristically self-indulgent narrative style.

We have a feeling that there were many exasperated sighs heard in boardrooms at Sony when Kojima revealed his magnum opus. Never one to compromise his artistic vision, the designer has done what he always has: produced an experience straight from the bowels of his imagination, without much attention paid to established conventions in the genre. This is great for fans who appreciate his vision, but less wonderful for the suits who are worried about the bottom line.

MGS4 is likely to appeal very strongly to a core group of people who have owned previous Sony consoles. However, it is unlikely to break any sales records, either in terms of software or hardware.