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Metal Gear Solid 4 Delayed To 2008

Posted by Zonk on Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:28 AM
from the just-like-everything-else dept.
PlayStation (Games)
Gamespot is reporting that Konami has delayed Metal Gear Solid 4 until Q2 2008. Just the latest in the long lineup of huge title delays, Konami delayed the game for the same reason all the others were: polish. "According to Japanese and English language press releases on the Konami Web site, the game will now be coming to Japan in the first quarter of 2008, and other regions in the second quarter. The game had been due for a simultaneous worldwide pre-Christmas release exclusively for Sony's PlayStation 3 console. A statement from Konami gives the reasoning behind this decision, 'Konami has decided to delay the title's release in order to make further improvements to the quality of the game and provide even greater enjoyment for more customers worldwide.' It added that it would continue to work on the game to make sure it will 'meet everyone's expectations.'"
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[+] Konami's Pre-TGS Conference 19 comments
Tokyo Games Show is almost upon us, and there are already lots of hardworking folks out in Japan covering the pre-events. The first up today is the conference from Konami, running down the titles they'll be showing at this year's event. New titles include DS game Time Hollow, PSP title Silent Hill Origins, Silent Hill V, a Pilates game, and a bunch of content for mobile gamers. They also showed off the new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer, which apparently was full of spoilers. "Kojima moves on to Metal Gear Online. A new trailer runs. An overhead view of a soldier pans down to him being shot at. 'Where Are My Comrades?' reads the screen. We see two squads taking position on two separate roofs. 'Where Are My People Who Need Help?' reads the screen. Teammates help each other up. 'Where Are Those I Must Protect?' More squad tactics are shown, lots of gun fire, missile launchers taking out sentry towers. One fight takes place in a sewer, featuring solid water effects." The Online title will be available for play at the event.
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  • Is it fair to translate this to mean they need more time to bump the polygon count? I also don't understand the statement about bringing it to more customers as it seems that less people have PS3s than any other.
    • It means they need more time to prepare the Xbox 360 and Wii ports.

      • Re:Fair Translation? (Score:5, Funny)

        by flyingsquid (813711) on Wednesday October 31 2007, @10:43AM (#21184569)
        Konami delayed the game for the same reason all the others were: polish.

        Oh, sure, sure. Your company screws up, blame the Polish. Bunch of racists.

        • Oh, sure, sure. Your company screws up, blame the Polish. Bunch of racists.

          Kaczynski brothers have lost the elections. They have to find new villains for the video game :-)

        • Konami delayed the game for the same reason all the others were: polish.

          Oh, sure, sure. Your company screws up, blame the Polish. Bunch of racists.

          Every nation has their traditional ethnic whipping boys. Here in the States, we just blame the French for everything. Massive drought in the Midwest? The French. Vista sucks? Must be the French. War in Iraq not going well? The French again. As they said in the South Park movie, so long as you've got someone else to blame, you never have to consider your own contribution to the problem.

      • prepare the ports??....
        Sony has the exclusive for X number of months(at least 6+)....so, no, the 'ports' won't be the reason that the 'original' gets held back...
        the reason is the same as all of the other delays, the ps3 is hard to code for and the dev's didn't anticipate some of the problems they are now encountering...
        this pisses me off because, the 'ports' will also be delayed because the ps3 date slipped...even though the 'ports' will probably be done long before Sony's exclusive grace period runs out.
        s
        • Assuming there is a port, could they return whatever investment Sony provided for a "timed exclusive", should their accountants project they come out better with simultaneous release?
        • Yeah, at this rate the 360 version will be released before the PS3 version.
    • The delay itself will bring the game to more customers, seeing as how more people are likely to have PS3s by then.
  • This is not the first slip. I seem to recall once having heard that MGS4 was supposed to be very close to a launch title for the PS3 -- when it launched in Spring 2007. Anyone got anything concrete?
    • Yeah, GameFAQs tends to lag behind on news of launch dates:

      http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps3/data/926596.html [gamefaqs.com]

      Prior to this it was:
      2007 (Japan)
      Q1 2008 (US)
      January 2008 (EU)
      March 2008 (Aus)

      And before that I believe there was a period of time when it was scheduled to come out in holiday 2007 in the US.
    • Anything concrete? You must be new here. Games don't get concrete release dates until they are close to being done, or have a hundred million dollar marketing campaign pushing them out regardless of completion (see Halo 2). Anyone who still believed MGS4 was coming out this year was crazy. GameStop isn't even taking pre-orders yet for what is expected to be one of the biggest PS3 releases for awhile. They're pre-ordering WoW: Wrath of the Lich King for crying out loud, and that's at least next November
      • I would go as far as to say that games don't have a concrete release date until they're sitting on the shelf. I don't know ANY other industry that has so much trouble with release date inflation. Have you ever heard of a band that said, "Hey, we've got a new album coming out in 2 months", only to say "Ooops, sorry, not until 2009". Same goes for Hollywood and literature.

        Bottom line, game marketting is incredibly broken. In all other entertainment industries, you would be laughed out of business if you were

  • 2008 is when the PS3 may start selling? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by metamatic (202216) on Wednesday October 31 2007, @10:45AM (#21184589) Homepage Journal
    I'm looking at early 2008 as when I might consider getting a PS3. As well as MGS 4, there should be GTA IV turning up then.

    Also, Sony has announced that they aren't going to ship rumble-enabled controllers with the US PS3 until next year, which basically amounts to them saying they don't want me to buy one this year.
    • By April 2008, Sony should be releasing the Dualshock3 controller with rumble in the US, going live with HOME, their new online service for the PS3, not to mention there's a good 5 or 6 games that were already delayed from 2007 to 2008 including UT, MGS4, etc.

      Whether or not this will finally get Sony into the console race remains to be seen.

  • OK then... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rbarreira (836272) on Wednesday October 31 2007, @10:47AM (#21184611) Homepage
    That pretty much confirms that Sony will massively fail at even coming near their PS3 shipment forecasts for the fiscal year. They are forecasting 11 million shipped during the fiscal year, and have shipped 2 million in the first half.

    With MGS4 now out of the fiscal year (ending March 31 2008), a new round of doom and gloom for Sony has been ordered from the media. Publishers will pay attention to it, and Konami will too. If Microsoft is trying to get Konami to port MGS4 to the 360, this will make it much easier.

    PS: Does it make any sense to release this game during the slow summer season? There could be further delays up to 2008's holiday season.
    • I agree with rbarreira... I'm thinking Konami has finally acknowledged the PS3's dismal sales and is working on conversion to the 360 platform as well. This was supposed to be the "must have" PS3 game for the holiday season and now it's being pushed back to early summer here in the States. To me, that just sounds like it has "multi-platform launch" written all over it...

      • I agree with rbarreira... I'm thinking Konami has finally acknowledged the PS3's dismal sales and is working on conversion to the 360 platform as well. This was supposed to be the "must have" PS3 game for the holiday season and now it's being pushed back to early summer here in the States. To me, that just sounds like it has "multi-platform launch" written all over it.../quote>

        They would announce it if it were so. Unless there was any ulterior motive not to build cross platform hype. As well the PS3 has been dismal in the US but in the japan it doubles or triples the sales of 360 in any given month. MGS is as big in japan as the US so the jury is out on how well it would suit them to go cross-platform. I don't doubt MGS4 will get to the 360 eventually but I think sony did manage to bribe konami to keep it temporarily single platform. This delays seems to be in line with almost all the delayed PS3 games. Mostly extra time to get performance issues under control.

    • That pretty much confirms that Sony will massively fail at even coming near their PS3 shipment forecasts for the fiscal year. They are forecasting 11 million shipped during the fiscal year, and have shipped 2 million in the first half.
      Surely you underestimate Sony! They can meet the 11 million shipped and then advertise that each Sony Style store had 300,000 units IN STOCK NOW!
    • The sales haven't been beating the Wii. That's all fine and dandy, as neither is the "mature" 360. But when you line up the sales, you see that the PS3 is on track with the 360. [techvat.com] Sure, it's comparatively weak up until this point, but the sales rates have been exactly the same.

      Combine that with the fact that the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Japan, and it just doubled the 360's sales [n4g.com] for last week (less than a month after the Halo 3 release) and even beat the Wii, and I'd say it's too early to put a death k
      • I thought UT3 was back until after Christmas, or at least moved into a very uncertain "we'd love to have it done before Christmas, but who really knows if we'll manage that?" zone. But hey, there's Haze, still.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by p0tat03 (985078)

        The 360 isn't *all* doom and gloom. The attach rate (games sold per box) is huge compared to either of its competitors, compared with the Wii where attach rates are pretty dismal. MS *needs* a high attach rate due to their loss-per-box, whereas Nintendo will rake it in from selling hardware alone. Game publishers, on the other hand, rely on attach rate, because hardware sales mean nothing if everyone is still playing Wii Sports and not the *other* games. The 360 is getting all that publisher love for a very

        • what exactly are they playing?

          I don't know what they are playing in Japan but there are a number of good or high profile games out. I happen to be enjoying the New R&C and have Folklore lined up (I have only owned my PS3 for a week). Plus there are lots of people who enjoy Resistance, Heavenly Sword and even some that like Lair. So there are games, just a little limited for now.

          As for the Holiday seasons PS3 does have Uncharted as an exclusive and plenty of non-exclusives that will lore the PS2 owners to finally upgrade.

        • I was under the impression Wii attach rates were 4.8 or low 3 depending on if you count Wii sports and wii play in NA, hardly dismal Global attach rates are 4.94 according to the numbers I found. That being said most of those games are ninetendo games, but let's face it if nintendo stopped making hardware tomorrow, and released only software Do you think they wouldn't dominate the sales of the other two consoles? Nintendo owns the two largest franchises in video game history, and a couple of others that
        • People keep claiming the Wii's attach rate is "dismal", but less than a year in, the attach rate is roughly 5 -- about as good as the "incredible" attach rate for the 360 was after its second holiday season, in fact.

          It's not actually doing badly; it's just that people sort of assumed it would, and none of them bother to check any facts. An attach rate of 5 with the games drought the Wii's had (like all 1st-year consoles) is quite good, and I bet it'll be a lot higher by January.
          • The Wii's attach rate is roughly 3 to 3.5, depending on if you count Wii Play (bundled with remote).
            • So you say, but do you have sources? Nintendo's last financials showed 67M software sales and 13M hardware sales. If you exclude the two most successful titles (Wii Play and Wii Sports), it's obviously going to be lower... But if we start excluding pack-ins and bundles, everyone's attach rate looks worse.

              The fact is, it's still nowhere near "dismal", even if we go out of our way to try to stack the deck in favor of the Xbox.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by p0tat03 (985078)

            Here ya go [joystiq.com]

            The data shows attach rate on 360 doubles the PS3, and more than doubles the Wii. At an average of $60 a game for this gen, that's some extra $120 spent per console that's going towards (most probably) 3rd party publishers.

            I call bullshit on that one - thats just FUD that you 360 owners love spreading - if the attach rate of the 360 was so brilliant, why has it only ever made profit in 1 quarter, even though its been out for nearly 8 quarters?

            Because it's not great enough? This is especially true given the massive FUBAR MS committed with 360 hardware. They're spending an ass-load of cash repairing crapped out 360s, and that's hitting their bottom line. That, however, doesn't change the fact that 360 owners are

      • Combine that with the fact that the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Japan, and it just doubled the 360's sales for last week (less than a month after the Halo 3 release) and even beat the Wii, and I'd say it's too early to put a death knell in the PS3 for this holiday season. You still have UT3 and Haze coming out, along with many other games on the horizon. Price cuts and game releases are both what hte consumer has asked for and what Sony is giving them. To write the console off this early is crazy

        According to media create the Japaneses sales of the PS3 was 17k last week, the 360 3k. Thats almost 7 times as much.

        • According to media create the Japaneses sales of the PS3 was 17k last week, the 360 3k. Thats almost 7 times as much.

          And it's even closer to 6 times as much.
      • Have you looked at how many PS3s have actually sold in Japan? Sure, it may be twice the 360, but the 360 has sold next to nothing in Japan (which isn't a surprise given the general collection of games)

        So, even doubling isn't very much at all. Meanwhile, the Wii has easily been outselling the PS3 in Japan by a factor of at least 4 or 5 to 1. Consistently. On top of all that, Japan is no longer the 500 lb. gorilla it once was in the video gaming market. It now makes up about 17% of the global market. Th
          • How is GHIII better on the 360 than the PS3?

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by bigstrat2003 (1058574)
              Fanboy vision. The only difference between the two versions is achievements, which, I'm sorry, does not make a game better. If they're your thing, fine, but they have no bearing on the quality of the game, for better or for worse.

              I also tend to dispute in general that the 360 has compelling exclusives. They have Halo 3, Forza 2, and DoA 4. I can't think of any other game which is exclusive to the 360 that's actually a really good, gotta-play game in its genre. I think the "PS3 doesn't have good games, 360

              • Never under estimate the power of the ePeen. People like achievements. A LOT.
                • Bioshock is not exclusive. Mass Effect and Fable 2 are, but aren't out yet, so they don't count. I'm judging by what's available right now.
                  • Gears of war. For the time being. Might not be your thing, but I think they sold 3 million of them.
                    • Ah, true. I forgot about that one, thanks. I'd actually pick it up for my 360 if the PC version wasn't coming out soonish.
      • So, is the PS3 closing the gap with the 360 and Wii, or is the gap widening? Because month-to-month, it just keeps getting wider and wider, except for one sales spike after a price drop.

        That's the real issue. The PS3 should be catching up, not falling further and further behind.
      • Er, I hate to rain on your anti-MS parade, but:

        * The 360 launch titles had the highest aggregate review scores of any console release to date.
        * Halo 3 has sold a third of a billion dollars for Microsoft and is played online by more than a million people a day. What misguided expectations did YOU have?
        * Every 360 made will have superior backwards compatibility in comparison to every PS3 made after the 80GB is discontinued and they switch over to the same motherboard as the 40GB.
        * The "umbrella developers" w
  • Without having to compete with this system-seller during Christmas, I'm thinking that Nintendo's sales are going to be even higher than their recently increased projections...

    /runs off to fondle his stock certificates

    • Without having to compete with this system-seller during Christmas, I'm thinking that Nintendo's sales are going to be even higher than their recently increased projections... /runs off to fondle his stock certificates

      If they can ramp up production. Wii's sell fairly quickly now. by Christmas they may be even more scarce. Conversely they might hit a saturation point soon and decline in sales to 360/Ps3 levels eventually. I have one and am not a huge fan. My Ps3 and a borrowed 36 get a lot more play due to the lack of many quality solo games.

      • They have recently stated that they're producing 1.8 million per month. They're probably stockpiling many of them for the holiday season, since they also said supply will double in Christmas. They'll also launch the Wii in China, so they will probably ramp up production even more!

        Despite all of that, it's still quite likely that the Wii will still be sold out in many places at the end of the year.
    • that's if you can find one stateside. I wonder if Nintendo is purposely limiting US supply to keep demand high. Good move if so, bad move if they can't produce enough.
  • I'm still waiting for MGS3 to come out for the PC, like the other installments of Solid have. Bastards!
  • I can put off purchasing a PS3 that much longer.
    TZ
  • Big time!!!

  • Translation (Score:3, Interesting)

    by powerlord (28156) on Wednesday October 31 2007, @11:54AM (#21185527) Journal
    MGS4 will sell just fine without it being the "Holiday Season".

    We have therefore decided to push the release date back so as not to compete for people's money.

    We will use the extra time to polish the game, since we have the time anyway.
  • I cannot understand why people here are so gung-ho about comparing systems based on the number of consoles sold. None of us here are making any money off of them. So what if your console has more sales than mine. It doesn't matter! If I wanna boast about my console, it would be regarding its price, capabilities, and what games are available for it.

    Yes, I agree that more console sales leads towards more developers targeting it. But most of the postings don't even go there. What are we, rival marketing droids
    • Actually I've always thought that MGS4's storyline continues from the themes of MGS2 - that an information society makes warfare a very scary proposition, and individuality is compromised.
    • Especially since polish translations (with the exception of "The Longest Journey", IMHO better than original, and "Planescape: Torment", which was a monumental task that turned out at least as good) usually suck big time ;)

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