So MGS4 For The 360 Huh..
240 days 4 hours ago
| by:
Meus Renaissance
I think there's a whole different facet to this story than the actual story itself, ironically. Most of us know Metal Gear has seen the light of day on multiple consoles in the previous gen, so it was never really one of those type of exclusives where a 3rd party publisher just puts it on a specific platform and that was that. And because of that no one would give you an odd look if you suggested, a few years ago, that Metal Gear Solid 4 would eventually end up on another platform after a period of exclusivity on Sony's next gen platform.
Fast forward to the present day and you're getting the exact same suggestion, but with a louder voice. This whole commotion has deeper roots than just Metal Gear. Indeed it stems back to when exclusive games, like GTA4, like Devil May Cry, like Ace Combat, where heavily related to the PlayStation brand but as the cost of development went up, publishers had no choice but to try and, at least, get a return for their investment if not profit from these games and that is why they're being released on the Xbox aswell. This ofcourse shocks the fan base of the PlayStation at a sensitive time where their next-gen console is being criticised from all directions - and the fact that it cost $600 being a kick in the teeth. A moment of contemplation becomes neccessary. You had to think about what console you were going to buy as the reasons you might have had - become limited to a point now.
This theme of inferiority, or loss of superiority, continued with poor ports to the PlayStation 3 and thus gave birth to a mentality within the gaming community where fanboy wars was fuelled by withcraft-like passion. The PlayStation fanbase had to defend their purchase, even though they had little ammunition in these battles.
The idea then, that a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 also being on the Xbox 360 - even though this was as I said earlier a big possibility anyway, was blasphamous. It was simply unacceptable that anymore games could lose that "PlayStation" relationship that it had in the previous generation. These rumours, if you actually think about, do not say that a 360 version would be released at the same time as the PS3 version. Although some speculate it could be within months of that release, the more logical assumption is that it'd follow the footsteps of previous examples of Metal Gear tasting other platforms and so it'd be released after around a year atleast on its debut on Sony's platform. Even this boils the blood for many.
And it's not because it's going to another platform, but because of the recent trend of negativity, or lack of positives or "bragging rights" that the console has had, that anything other than that, is welcomed with suspicion and firm emotional dismissal. The notion of "MGS4 on 360" gives the assumption, perhpas intentionally, that both versions would be released at the same time. So the resistance to these things are what mainly fuel this inappropiately fashioned rumour in my opinion; it's not the actual story behind the rumour, but the timing and the way it is formulated. You'd get a massively difference response from the PlayStation user base if it was "Could MGS4 be ported to the 360 in the future?".
What do you believe Meus?
I think there's a great possibility that Solid Snake will see the light of day on Microsoft's console eventually, but it will have atleast a one year gap after its release on the PS3. As Ryan Payton said, "if you want to play MGS4 next year, you're going to need a PlayStation 3". Is that damaging to the PlayStation 3 in general? Well it's a different situation right now with the console wars than what we had with the PlayStation 2. If Sony begin to show signs that they're beginning to regain their dominance, then no it's not really derogative. But if it has a disappointing 2008, which I don't think it will, then yes it will be seen as somewhat hurtful. However, it's really hard to mock the PlayStation 3 userbase if they get a game atleast one year ahead of anyone else..and personally I wouldn't really be bothered by that.
However, there are some things that challenge the idea of it ever going multiplatform, such as the actual design of the game that Kojima is sternful with, that uses the technology of the PlayStation 3, more specifically the use of the HDD and the high storage space of Blu-Ray (rumour is MGS4 will be the first game to use a 50GB disc). So, if it was ported, it'd be quite a different game than it is now.
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