Sales of MGS reach 4.75 million

By Ellie Gibson Published 15 May, 2009

Konami revenue up, but profits down.

Konami has seen a rise in sales of 4.2 per cent this fiscal year. Profits are down by more than 40 per cent, however, standing at JPY 10,874 million (GBP 2.1 billion).

The Metal Gear Solid series is still doing well, with 4.75 million copies now shifted around the globe. There are 1.3 million Metal Gear Online users worldwide.

The Pro Evolution Soccer series is also popular - nearly 8.5 million games were sold last year alone. Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party and Karaoke Revolution rounded out the line-up of Konami's big sellers.

UPDATE: This story originally stated Metal Gear Solid 4 had sold 4.75 million copies, when that figure in fact refers to the entire MGS series. As you can see, this has now been fixed. We apologise for the error.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kincaide #1 3 years ago

    MGS!MGS!MGS!MGS!

    (etc)

  • DoctorZoidberg #2 3 years ago

    Surely from a business point of view, it would be stupid not to release MGS4 on 360?

    You could at least double the total sales worldwide and possibly more.

  • mkreku #3 3 years ago

    That's quite an impressive MGS number. Imagine if it would have been multi-platform (which it obviously should have been)!

  • TeRm0z #4 3 years ago

    1,3 million MGO users.. Hmm, a bit sceptic about that figure with the current "slightly awkward" registration system. Maybe if the online part was "click and play"(as with any other console title in the market) could give it a try...

  • spammage #5 3 years ago

    Not possible on the 360, Due to it being a POS console.

    Bring on the Xbots.......

  • lcmnick #6 3 years ago

    If some people knew that MGS4 is basically sponsored by Apple and has a fair few Sony references thrown in, I think they'd understand why it isn't on the 360.

  • Sulphur #7 3 years ago

    Nice thread title, Ellie. :D

    It makes a lot of financial sense to make an X360 port, yes. There's less overhead involved than if they had to make a brand new game from scratch, and it'd increase profits if it sells well enough, and that could only mean more funding for Kojima Productions, which is a good thing in my book.

    The only immediate problem I see is the limited disk space - it might need to ship on 4 dual layer DVDs.

    Oh, and that Otacon comment about swapping discs might not sit well with X360 owners, yeah. The Apple sponsorship doesn't seem like a very difficult thing to re-neogitate, though.
    Edited by 1 at 15/05/09 @ 10:32

  • penhalion #8 3 years ago

    @spammage

    How about we just click the ignore button under you instead?

    As for the metal gear solid debate. I'm not sure what benefit they'd get from porting it over. It is essentially a very long cut scene with bits of game thrown in. I doubt any reviewer, no matter how bias, could recommend a game where at least one disk is going to be cut scenes and about 10 minutes of actual play before the swap disk message suddenly appeared. I don't know about you guys but, I'd be a seriously pissed gamer were I to end up playing that!

    I've finished MGS 4 and if I had had to swap disks with this game I'd have lost all good will for it way before the end. It's just too much cutscene. I didn't even die once through the whole game so it's not exactly very challenging either. The whole experience needs to be a single seamless ride for it to work. Otherwise the shortfalls of the game suddenly become very apparent.
    Edited by 1 at 15/05/09 @ 10:36

  • mjakl #9 3 years ago

    Well, MGS2 was multiplatform and sold almost nothing on XBox. Konami won't make same mistake twice.

  • gamefan #10 3 years ago

    Get you maths correct please Eurogamer Konami did not make £2.1 Billion

    It was circa £130 million ($198 million US)

  • Widge #11 3 years ago

    Don't think I died in MGS4 on my 'Normal' run through, but a brief go on 'Hard' seems like it could be bloody difficult. Very aware soldiers with good AI.

    Kind of holding off another run through in the vague hope of anything trophified hitting it.

  • DoctorZoidberg #12 3 years ago

    It's one game that really can afford to stay exclusive.

    Considering how much money the company lost, I don't think that's an accurate statement.

    Regardless of fan boys etc, From a strictly cash point of view, even if they only sold 100,000 copies, thats still 100,000 x £ more than they had before hand.

  • mjakl #13 3 years ago

    @DoctorZoidberg
    But you suppose that creating XBox360 version is free, which is not.

  • DoctorZoidberg #14 3 years ago

    But you suppose that creating XBox360 version is free, which is not.

    I know it won't be free, but wasn't it "built" on a PC, so technically fairly straight forward? You will excuse me if I'm well of the mark here, I'm not to knowledgeable on this side of things.

    At the end of the day, they have to ask themselves, is the Juice worth the squeeze?

    @ Coin-Op, I don't think your views can really hold any ground here. Anyone who comes out with quotes such as the below really can't be taken seriously :

    (after very slight word use error)
    "Vodoocharlie please speak English or get the fuck out"

    "PS3 has far better games than 360 in 2009, I don't give a shit about sales "

    "You see what happens when you let women talk about games. She should be at home making babies and the dinner. "

    "It begins, 360 will have to settle for gimped multi platform games due to lack of disk space. Oh well guess I'll get the PS3 version. Luckily that system is not out dated and is future proof."

    "Are there any grown ups who actually play these pokemon games?, if so I think you should be put in prison as you are a danger to society. Grow up, seriously."

    Though to be fair, that is pretty much your whole recent post history..

    (yes I'm bored at work!)

  • alasdairm #15 3 years ago

    Is it possible they might just port the Online part of the game as at a guess that part would not need much story telling and avoid having to swap discs

    With multi disc games would NXE allow one of the discs to be installed on the hard drive, and another run off the dvd drive ??

    If that would work it should be ok for Forza 3, as its rumoured to be multi disc

  • BobsUncle #16 3 years ago

    @Zoidberg

    "but wasn't it "built" on a PC, so technically fairly straight forward?"

    No, it isn't straight forward at all. For a start, the 360 isn't just a PC in a small box, so assuming any PC application is quick to port to 360 is wrong. Programmers have magic things called compilers that take code and turn it into machine instructions, which might not target that actual machine they are compiling on. i.e. you also use a PC to build software for phones.

    As for PS3 -> 360 port, The 360 uses a version of DirectX 9 as it's rendering API, and the PS3 uses (I don't know exactly what but) somthing completly different, so all the rendering code at a minimum would need to be re-written. Plus all the optimisations that were written specifically for the Cell and the RSX chips which are not present in the 360.

    Japs are not particularly well known for writing portable an modular code either...

  • EvilBob_leeds #17 3 years ago

    Where's the normal torrent of wankers whinging about the cutscenes in MGS?

    I'm not usre why Konami haven't ported it. Paid exclusive maybe. Or maybe projected sales aren't as good as we think they are. But Konami do have a development team for the 360 - Silent Hill Homecoming - so there's no much reason why not.

  • EvilBob_leeds #18 3 years ago

    You could at least double the total sales worldwide and possibly more.

    Actually, taking RE5 and SFIV as a benchmark, no, you wouldn't. Both of those games have sold considerably less on the 360, despite the 360 having sold more systems.

  • Bravestinsane #19 3 years ago

    Quite frankly switching disks would not bother me at all, personally i think if your crying about switching disks for any game for that matter you should seek help.

    As for the game it self i couldn't really get in to it, i thought it was boring in my opinion so if it came out on the 360 it would be a meh from me. Suppose it would help if i played the origional 2 games, but if i did i would spend the day crying after my seemless experience was crushed after i had to change disks!

  • GreyBeard #20 3 years ago

    The problem is, was, and remains that porting MGS4 is not cheap and easy, its "tied" exceptionally tightly to the PS3 and various Sony brands. Not to mention the problem that its a huge data-hog, there's no way its going to be deliverable on less than 2 DVDs, (a disc per act seems likely) making it an expensive title to publish.

    Its always been a matter of money, not technology.

  • BobsUncle #21 3 years ago

    If you have a problem with the concept of disc swapping, you'd start crying during the forced installs between EVERY ACT. Doubly annoying is the fact that it deletes the old install with the new one, so if you play act 3 then go back to act 2 you have to install act 2 again, then back to act 3, another re-install.

    The option of saving the installs or one big one would have been nice for those of us who replaced the original HDD for a bigger one.

  • wonton #22 3 years ago

    None of us know the intricacies of the MGS4 codebase,

    so never say never...

    ps, i only own a ps3

  • VandelayIndustries #23 3 years ago

    Nowt wrong with self indulgence farty, especially in this climate where games (and movies) are seemingly focus tested to the point of blandness.

    MGS4 was a total breath of fresh air in that regard.

  • spiritsnake #24 3 years ago

    ive been reading these forums as a guest for very long now and ive always wanted to do one thing,and today i joined just to do that. farti ur a pain in the pee hole,a gigantic, rotting, oozing,pile of radiated mutant excretion, poor excuse for a protein, rancid, retarded, inbreed, totally suck ass and a motherfucking cockup. the gaming community will rejoice and it will be a second coming the day you shut the fuck up!!!!!

  • Bravestinsane #25 3 years ago

    @spiritsnake

    hehe i joined either the same day as you or the day before, lol how pathetic is that i can't even remember when i joined, but partly the same reason, i was always reading the comments as well and wanted to put my say in, half of the facts people spew out are a load of crap....

    ...oh fart that wasn't at you i was just agreeing with his joining reasons apart from insulting you...