Metal Gear Solid 4 producer admits to sales pressure

It’s been in development for a long time, and the expectations of it are phenomenal – and now Konami has admitted that its PS3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 must sell a million copies just to recoup the cost of its development.

Reuters claims that producer Ryan 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."

However, talk of the game going multiplatform in an effort to maximise returns appears to have been thrown out of the window, with Payton stating: "The PlayStation brand has always been good to us, and we’re pretty bullish on the PS3. We’re telling our fans that if you want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, you have to buy a PS3."

The rising development costs that have accompanied the arrival of next-gen machines mean that the pressure is for triple-A titles to match critical hype with commercial success. IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon told Reuters:

"You might be able to weather one title coming in at 500,000 in sales, but two or three failures like that and even big publishers are going to be hurting."