MGS Creators on 'Masochistic' PS2, U.S. Popularity

Thanks to GameSpy for its article interviewing Hideo Kojima and Scott Dolph of Konami about the continuation of the Metal Gear Solid series. Notable sections include Kojima's comments about the programming difficulties of Sony hardware: "People on my team are masochistic. They enjoy the difficulty of working with PlayStation 2 and we assume that PlayStation 3 will be even more difficult. We know nothing about the system; but it's from Sony, so we assume so", as well as Dolph discussing Metal Gear Solid's regional popularity: "You know, it sells better in the United States. There are more people who buy the game and are waiting for the game. Also, the hype from the U.S. travels and that helps sales in Japan. If the game is big in the U.S., it will do better in Japan. And I do not think that the hype works for you the other way around."

Comments

Re:Eastern focus

[Metal_Demon]

Another big thing that keeps Japanese games from coming here...besides licensing($$$), is that they make some really weird crap. The population of people who will buy stuff here just because it is popular in Japan is much different compared to the reverse. Fanboys (like me) will buy stuff that is cool in Japan, where "normal" Japanese people will buy stuff that is cool in America.

For some reason I feel like I didn't make much sense...oh well.