MG: Rising dev fears GTA-style reaction

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 13 September, 2010

Downplays brutal gameplay trailer.

The producer of Metal Gear: Rising fears people may overreact to the game in the same way some did when Grand Theft Auto first burst onto the scene.

The ability to cut virtual humans in any way gamers see fit, as showcased in the E3 2010 reveal trailer below, worries Kojima Productions' Shigenobu Matsuyama.

"What was shocking was a title like Grand Theft Auto," Matsuyama told Eurogamer in a new interview published today.

"I never realised the freedom of any other games. You could go anywhere. You could do anything.

"It was fun, but at the same time I felt a fear of what the people would do and how they would react. When I saw that title I thought, as a creator there was going to be a hell of a lot of risk involved.

"As I create Rising, and going back to the freedom to cut humans, I always have Grand Theft Auto and that shocking feeling in my mind."

Rising's debut trailer sees cyborg ninja Raiden slicing and dicing humans from all sorts of nasty angles. He also cuts fruit.

Matsuyama's designed the game to discourage players from deliberately carving at human opponents, and wants them to feel like they've made a big mistake if they do so accidentally.

"I'm not saying this will be a game for children," Matsuyama insisted. "It's a game for adults. Therefore I didn't want to lie. If you make a mistake something will happen in order to make it real and make you feel it's real as well.

"That kind of image from the trailer you saw I thought was needed. But again, that trailer is almost an exaggeration of what you could do. We're not going to persuade people to do that."

Rising's due out on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • matrim83 #1 2 years ago

    The producer of Metal Gear: Rising fears people may overreact to the game in the same way some did when Grand Theft Auto first burst onto the scene.

    LOL Nope. They are hoping that people may overreact to the game in the same way some did when Grand Theft Auto first burst onto the scene.
    Edited by matrim83 at 13/09/10 @ 12:35

  • Trillion #2 2 years ago

    Please please please make this for the Wii.

  • JahB #3 2 years ago

    Looks interesting. Let's hope this one is full of gameplay though, I have no interest to sit through another one of those cutscenes ever again.

  • bad09 #4 2 years ago

    So...I can kill hookers and grannies for their cash in Rising? Sweet!

    Looking forward to this, even if it is more than likely a hack n' slash. Gonna look sexy on the PC :)

  • OneClassyBloke #5 2 years ago

    >Include ultra violent features in video game
    >Express concern that people will use them

  • mumblyjoe #6 2 years ago

    This might be pretty sweet with move support.

  • Eraser #7 2 years ago

    @Argentlupine: actually, I like that. It saves me from reading the whole interview which I'm barely half-interested in anyway. Pointing out the highlights is good. Someones EG does overdo it when they add three news articles with quotes from one interview though, but oh well, don't click it if you don't want to read it.

  • MiniAmin #8 2 years ago

    I don't see what's wrong with re-posting a prominent quote of the interview as news. Not everyone reads the interviews, and I guarantee other media outlets will post quotes from this very interview as news. EG are entitled to do so.

  • Eraser #9 2 years ago

    Oh, as for my on topic comment:
    I just wonder why so many devs these days say "we're doing this and that but I am worried it will rub people the wrong way". If they're worried about it, why do it at all in the first place? It all reeks of simple marketing tricks. This dev does nothing but hype up his own game. He really isn't that worried about it.

  • kangarootoo #10 2 years ago

    "Rising dev prompts GTA-style unit shifting high publicity reaction"

    Fixed that for you.

    Edit: dammit, pipped by the first post in the thread. Have I not an original bone in my body anymore! :)
    Edited by kangarootoo at 13/09/10 @ 13:07

  • Spekingur #11 2 years ago

    The guy makes a game where you can slice people in half with a sword and he is shocked by Grand Theft Auto? Wth?

  • metallicorphan #12 2 years ago

    Metal Gear: Rising


    ahh,so have they got rid of the 'solid' in the title?,it certainly makes sense to do so as Solid Snake isn't in this one..then again he wasn't in MGS3,PO or PW

  • metallicorphan #13 2 years ago

    @Argentlupine

    ahh,i had no idea that was the reason,good stuff,thx

  • Silent-Hal #14 2 years ago

    @Argentlupine

    Thank you! It goes to show just how many people commenting here actually read the whole interview. I think what he's trying to say is fairly interesting, it's not often that you see games where killing someone is treated in such a manner. But then again the previous games always tried to incentivise non-violence too.

  • brseg #15 2 years ago

    There wont be a GTA style reaction, GTA had a 'real world' feel to it, stealing cars, firebombing shops etc. The cynical part of me says they *want* to stir up some reaction.
    The slicing effects look cool, but it looks a bit of a gimmick to me? (neg me if you disagree!).
    Edited by brseg at 13/09/10 @ 13:34

  • Vordred #16 2 years ago

    some times i really wish EG wouldn't take small parts of a interview and make a extra bit of news with it, it never comes off right, as it's normally a bit out of context without the rest of the interview

  • orangpelupa #17 2 years ago

    @trillion
    yeah this will be awesome on Wii. Using the wiimote to cut :D
    Maybe will feel a lot better than the already awesome No More Heroes 2's Wiimote-sword-katana

    btw hopefully someone mod the PC Game to allow to use Sony MOVE or Nintendo Wii-Remote :D
    Wiimote on PC is detected as normal HID :D :D

  • Razorus #18 2 years ago

    Too late, I'm already persuaded. You've designed an impressive engine there, Matsuyama old boy, and I intend to have fun with it!

  • metalangel #19 2 years ago

    He should be more afraid of an MGS2-style reaction. People were NOT happy about playing as a foppish blonde prettyboy!

  • Gartt #20 2 years ago

    Looks just like the Afro Samurai game mechanics.

  • darkmorgado #21 2 years ago

    Looks just like the Afro Samurai game mechanics.

    It really doesn't. Afro Samurai was a subpar generic hack and slash, with a VERY selective slashing system that only worked on enemies (which has been done in god knows how many other games). Seriously, the only thing about that game even worth mentioning is that it was spawned by a very decent Anime and it has Samuel L Jackson in it.

    /bitter because I bought that pile of trash.

  • darkmorgado #22 2 years ago

    Is this still 360 exclusive?

  • CaptainKid #23 2 years ago

    So you design a cool innovating feature where you can slice enemies in pieces any way you like.
    And then you develop your product in such a way to discourage people to use said feature.

    Sounds like a good idea!