Kojima on viability of Snatcher sequel

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 19 July, 2011

Needs lots of sales to be worthwhile.

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has questioned the viability of a Snatcher sequel, suggesting it would have to sell over half a million copies to be worthwhile.

In a series of Tweets (translated by Andriasang), the legendary game developer pondered whether a new Snatcher would sell 200,000 units in Japan.

Talk of a sequel was prompted by the success of Kojima's Sdatcher radio drama, which has seen at its peak 450,000 listeners in Japan.

"Even though the radio broadcast is free, if we converted it to a game, could it sell 200,000 or so domestically?" Kojima wondered.

Kojima then said that if they were to seriously create a Snatcher with 3D polygons and a pseudo open world akin to Team Bondi's L.A. Noire, there would be financial problems if it didn't sell 500,000 units in Japan.

Kojima has already said he is too busy with his "devil project" to make a Snatcher sequel – but would be happy for another developer to take it on.

The graphic adventure first came out on the NEC PC-8801 and MSX 2 back in 1988, before being ported to the Mega-CD, Sega Saturn and PSone in the mid '90s.

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 (10) Latest comment 10 months ago

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  • X201 #1 10 months ago

    One sale here Mr Kojima sir. \o

  • richarddavies #2 10 months ago

    I'd snap it up if it was just a XBLA/PSN game in the same stayle as the original. Just 2d sprites and voice acting that's how I'd want it. Be alot cheaper to produce too.

  • orangpelupa #3 10 months ago

    also maybe if want 3D cities, make the city procedurally generated?

  • sega #4 10 months ago

    I'm not sure if the people who want a new Snatcher game actually want a 3D one. I think it'd have to be in the interactive comic book adventure style of the original - more like Phoenix Wright than L.A. Noire. Maybe target it towards the download and handheld markets.

    The gameplay was one of the most appealing parts of Snatcher, which went perfectly with the type of story it was trying to tell. Changing the style of gameplay means you don't really have a Snatcher game - the story is basically just Bladerunner mixed with The Terminator anyway, but it's the gameplay that really makes the title unique and appealing.

  • Bennicus #5 10 months ago

    Well here is my brilliant business idea: how about it doesn't have to be a big-budget half-million-selling smash, and you just make something a bit more niche that doesn't need so many sales? Seems to work great for a lot of indies, and there's no reason why big publishers can't release these sorts of games as well as the blockbusters.

  • sega #6 10 months ago

    Also how cool is it that Japan get Snatcher themed radio dramas? Imagine if we had thad - "next on Radio 4 we have The Archers, after which we will finally find out if Gillian Seed finds the Snatcher responsible for twisting off Jean Jack Gibson's head".

  • Shotofen #7 10 months ago

    Or you could make a game that is both interesting and thoughtful and doesn't have to sell half a mill in Japan to be considered a success. It doesn't need to have the fanciest graphics...it just needs to be good.

  • Bander #8 10 months ago

    Alas, it is true that graphic adventures with 3D visuals are expensive to make and don't sell that well. See Shenmue and Dreamfall.

    But as others have said, sticking with 2D visuals is a solution. Put it on handhelds, phones, download services... In Japan it could still be viable as a full disk release for PC/PS3/360 given that 'visual novels' are still being released in reasonable numbers there. But I think it's likely that Kojima isn't thinking of download sales, and doesn't think it's worth it for him specifically to work on a game that sells less than half a million.

  • SlackMaster #9 10 months ago

    Would be nice to see the original re-released on XBLA or PSN. I've never played it and have been looking for a MegaCD copy but the scalpers on ebay are asking £129 and up for it.

  • metalangel #10 10 months ago

    Well, quite. The production values of the first one were, for a 16-bit game, amazing.

    @sega: That made me chuckle. Thank you.