Metal Gear Solid Needs 1 Million Sales

Los Angeles (CA) - Konami recently said in an interview that for its Playstation 3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 to be worth the investment, it needs to sell one million copies in the first day.

The game’s assistant producer Ryan Payton told Reuters that intensely high production costs means MGS4 must reach platinum status in under 24 hours, according to internal calculations.

The projection seems unlikely as only two PS3 titles to date have sold over a million copies, and both took months to achieve that mark.

This seemingly impossible sales target underlines a trend in the current generation of console gaming that shows how risky it is now for third-party publishers to create titles that are exclusive to a single platform, especially the fledgling PS3.

Because of its unattractive sales comparison, Sony is relying heavily on its own first-party game production to produce killer PS3 exclusives. In fact, Sony has more internal game development studios than Microsoft and Nintendo combined.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is slated for release some time next year.