“We’ve seen a phenomenon around the world…young people are losing interest in high-end games and focusing on mobile and social titles” Konami’s Hideo Kojima told Gamestm in a recent interview.

Kojima’s concerns hold merit as more and more big-budget, “triple-A” game titles fail to meet sales expectations. Resident Evil 6 sold over 5-million copies, yet Capcom deemed it a failure, and Tomb Raider sold over 3-million copies yet failed to meet Square Enix’s sales expectations.

Meanwhile, 2013 was a volatile year as more than ten game studios (THQ, Lucas Arts, and Vigil Games to name three) closed their doors.

“I wanted to show people that Japanese high-end games are still worth playing and that big Japanese games still have a future” Kojima said in regards to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeros and the to-be-announced Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain.

Perhaps Metal Gear Solid is the series to show the world that big-budget Japanese games are still worth the wait and price; Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeros is being released due to fans clamoring for a fifth installment.

“At the time, the Ground Zeroes portion was almost complete and a lot of fans were asking for a prologue, so that’s’ the decision we came to” Kojima said. “That was the reasoning behind the move [to split Metal Gear Solid 5 into two games.]”

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeros comes out March 18 in the United States.

Sources:

Gamestm
Polygon
Eurogamer
8cn.tv

My Opinion

The state of the industry is in a dire situation, but it isn’t the consumer’s fault. No, the problem is with the publishers themselves. Resident Evil 6 sold over 5-million copies and was somehow a failure. That’s insane, and the insanity isn’t to be placed on the consumers but on the publisher for setting such crazy expectations.

Kojima thinks Metal Gear Solid will bring interest back to big-budget titles, that Metal Gear Solid is the answer to the problem, but it’s this line of thinking that’s the real problem with the industry.

It’s the idea that bigger, crazier, and more of the same will fix everything that is driving players of all ages to smaller games on different platforms.