Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots was the biggest game for Playstation 3 this year. This is due to the fact that its the ONLY exclusive title from Kojima Production to stay exclusive on Playstation 3, as confirmed from day one. A lot of gamers, bought a PS3 for this game, like me and I can assure you, we are not dissapointed. Given to the fact of this game's pedigree, there were a lot of rumors that Konami is putting a lot of preassure on Hideo Kojima to port this game to XBOX360. Granted, in terms of hardware and capabilities, XBOX360 will have no problem running the game. But do to several reason, I think this will not be possible. This article will explain why is it so. Okay. This article will ignite fire. Seriously. But I am writing based of facts. Cold hard facts. I will present the facts in POINT FORMS so its easy to understand and digest. Let the dice ROLL.1. Blu Ray
Metal Gear Solid 4 is on a dual layer 34 gb of Blu Ray. Its that much. As of this writing, XBOX360 is only capable of dual layer DVD, amounting of 8 gb of data. Sure, there is nothing wrong about games with multiple discs. The thing is, Metal Gear Solid is a fanchise that is a head of its time. If you follow the Playstation instalment, the main game came with 2 CDs. At that time, the usage of DVD for videogames were still not avaliable, due to the fact no console came with a DVD drive at that time. When Playstation 2 was launched, it came as a DVD player as well as a game player. And Hideo Kojima was one of the early developers that confirmed Metal Gear Solid 2 for it. Sure, the original XBOX was also graced with the game, but it was also because XBOX was a DVD based console, same as Playstation 2. To seal the deal, after you fight Crying Wolf in MGS4, Octacon said, Snake its time to change discs do you see disc 2. Oh thats right we are on the ps3 system it has Blu-Ray, so we have no need to change discs- See? Its all about utilizing the best technologies for the best game. I have also seen comments from RETARDS stating Kojima should compress everything and it should fit 2 DL DVDs. Really, I really hate to be a party pooper but if you again follow MGS from its Playstation Heyday, Kojima is not a fan of compression. MGS1 came with 2 CDs, MGS2 was about 3.8gb of data, same case with MGS3. And any fool can tell you that lossless details uncompressed to you and me, means more details and contents for the game itself. Do you want to have a complete MGS4 experiece or rather a crippled one? Kojima sees MGS franchise as his own son, I dont know any father that would like to see his own son crippled.
2. Metal Gear Solid 3 was originally for Playstation 3.
If you guys have the Making of MGS4 BD from the SE version of the game, you will notice that Kojima stated as above in the BD. Okay, MGS3 was for PS2 and that dont make any sense right? Okay actually that was a clue on Kojima's support for Playstation. If he wanted to make MGS 3 as a multiplatform title like MGS1 (PS and PC) and MGS2 (PS2, Substance=PS2 and XBOX) he would have done so.To add to that, XBOX was about 4 times more powerful than a PS2. So its not about power. Granted, MGS2Substance sold poorly on 360. And fact, PS2 was the market leader at that time. MGS4 was launched nearly after PS3's 1 and a half year on the market, and reffering to the sales of the console, PS3 is clearly behind XBOX360. So why did Kojima chose PS3 as the platform for MGS4 again? Keep in mind, the reason MGS3 was launched on PS2 was because Kojima himself stated that they cant wait Sony to deliver the PS3 any longer so they opted for PS2. The gist of the story? Kojima is/was anticipating the release of PS3.Nuff said.
3. In game advertisements.
We saw Sony Ericcsson phones, Bravias, Mac Book , Playstation 3, Playstation Portable in MGS4. These are all in game advertisements.That means
a) The developers were PAID by these brands to put their product in the game. Paid here means, the development cost of the game is being sponsored in a substancial amount by the brands. Each brand is a competitor for Microsoft. So would you advertise for your competitor? In this sense, Sony got the upper hand. They sponsored the games development, and if the game lands on MS's console, MS would have to PAY Sony to use their brand in the game.
b) The products were rendered in the game by the developers to advertise it. Ask any graphics designer on how hard to render an original product to fit another scenario. So, Naomi, Vamp, Octacon and the whole Campbell briefing scene were using these brands, would you think the developers will coom to each one of the scene to rerender the product to suit MS's needs? Remember there was a Playstation on a desk in Octacon's lab way in PS1? The GC version of the game, The Twin Snakes featured a GC there, and of course, the game was not from Kojima's team, it was made by Silicons Knights, from ground up.Kojima only supervised. If you watched the Making of MGS4 BD from the SE version of the game, you will know that staffs in Kojima Production were really high on tension because of the game. Hell, even Snake controls MK11 with a DS3. And imagine yourself as Kojima, walk in a room full of tensed employees and say, Good job with MGS4 guys. Microsoft just landed another fat cheque to us and all we have to do is to remodel each Apple and Sony product in the game, replace it with something else. Oh, take out that BD joke too..
4. SIXAXIS Motion Sensor.
MGS4 used motion sensors. Especially in controlling Mantis' dolls. Sure you can use the 360's thumbstick on that, but where is the fun in that? During the boring briefing sections you can tilt the sixaxis up to lift the mkII up. And when you are hiding in the trash bins (who doesnt right? )You can tilt it to peak out.*credits to my buddy Amir for the additional info*Even the return of vibration excites Kojima.
5. Hard Disk Drive is not a standard for 360.
Its an optional add on for 360. MGS4 requires installation due to the large files of the game and the DVD drive cant read data as many as PS3's BD drive. This will be an issue if a gamer buys the game for his 360 yet unable to play it due to it requires a HDD. 5 Gb at least.
There you have it, in point form. Clearly, Kojima himself favors PS3 over 360. I have presented the facts, it up to you guys to think about it. I would love to see MGS4 on 360, but lets face it folks, Kojima is one tough nut to crack. People like him have self respect, and not everybody will bow to MS' dollars. Only if there is another team would like to build the game from scratch for 360, something like The Twn Snakes...
