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Konami has announced that it's adding Old Snake and BB Corps to its Japanese cell phone wallpaper service Kisekae Changer. One download will run users ¥525 ($7.68).
The publicity for MGS4 really must one of the longest PR campaigns (if not longest) for a released title. Guess that's not a bad thing for those who are really into Metal Gear Solid 4, no?
More BB images after the jump.
On the first day of TGS, during a presentation on their booth's stage, Sony went and announced a couple of LittleBigPlanet guest stars, in the form of playable Snake and Sephiroth sackboys. On hand for the announcement was Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, who was given a replica Snake sackboy for him to cuddle. Which he promptly did. Look at him snuggle! Melts your heart.
In the wake of Konami telling a Japanese investor site that it was "looking into" an Xbox 360 version of MGS4, Microsoft is now quoted as saying that the Xbox 360 can "handle" MGS4. With Final Fantasy XIII now multi-plat, that argument seems like it could very well hold water. According to John Schappert, the firm's corporate vice-president of Live, Software and Services:
Yes, this again. All throughout Metal Gear Solid 4's development, rumours swirled that the PS3 exclusive would go multi-platform. Even after Konami announced that the game would feature an in-game PS3 controller, the rumours persisted. And now thanks to Japanese stock investor bulletin Morningstar, those rumours continue. The site points out that the number of cross platform titles has increased in an effort to appeal to a more international market. While at TGS, Konami pr mouthpiece Yoshitaka Arai told Morningstar:
Yet another Japanese game developer getting all down on the Japanese game industry. This time it's Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima bringing the negativity. In a talk at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Kojima said: "If you honestly compare Japanese games with Western ones, Japan has lost."
Metal Gear Online has been, to quote, a "clusterfuck". Partially because Konami's online reliability is shaky, at best, but mostly because people just hate the fact they need to have a PSN ID, a Konami ID and a MGO ID just to play the thing. Well, it's OK, MGO fans. You're not alone. Your messiah, Hideo Kojima, has descended from a place on high and lo, he agrees with you.
Honestly, officially, I can't say anything on Konami ID and Game ID. It's a company policy. But frankly speaking, the idea wasn't a very good one. The fact is that Konami's direction was that we create a Game ID and Konami ID for the online components, and now we're seeing that it's not working so well, and we have to think about how to turn it around.
By "turn it around" do you mean "get rid of it"?
While Metal Gear Solid 4 might have brought Solid Snake's story to a close, you can damn well bet that Konami has no intention of abandoning the MGS franchise. Game site Siliconera brings word that a new Metal Gear Solid trademark has popped up on Japanese Trademark database. Konami has registered game name "Metal Gear Solid Existence" with the picture image. No doubt, there are many more to follow...
Metal Gear Solid Existence [Trademark Database via Siliconera]
Back in 2005, Kojima Productions rolled out the first look at Metal Gear Solid 4. It's 2008 and game site 1up is looking back with Metal Gear Solid 4 Associate Producer Ryan Payton — who has since left the company. This exchange is insightful:
The advertising campaign for Metal Gear Solid 4 was huge. The hype for that game, years in the making, was enormous. It was pushed hard before there were playable demos, and the game's creator, Hideo Kojima, raised expectations with big promise after big promise. It's curious that on the job announcement page for the Kojima Productions site, Hideo Kojima states:
The creativity of video games is now on the verge of crisis. 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.
And while Kojima and his team did deliver a first class title and while the game did provide a PS3 sales spike, the final product still hasn't sold a million copies in Japan. That might be because MGS is as popular with the home team crowd or whatever. The irony is that Konami is guilty of the hype Kojima seems so critical of.
And apparently, Japanese stores cannot return unsold product to distributors...
小島プロダクション 制作スタッフ募集 [Konami via 2ch Thanks, Muu!]
