Gaming blog Kotaku recently caught up with Hideo Kojima, the brains behind the influential Metal Gear series, shortly after his keynote address at last week's GO3 expo in Perth, Australia. Although both Kojima's speech and the subsequent interview run across the whole gamut of Kojima's development experience, Kotaku asked the question that has been plaguing the minds of PS3 and Xbox 360 fanboys alike:
Will Metal Gear Solid 4 remain PS3 exclusive?To answer this question, Kojima, perhaps appropriately, equated the three next gen systems to a moviegoing experience.
"The PS3 is like the theatre, it's a little bit high-priced but it has to be high quality as well," he explained. "The 360 is a DVD, it still needs to be high quality but you need more variations, while the Wii is almost like a TV channel, because every game you have it with your family".
So how does this relate to PS3 exclusivity, you may ask? When the subject changed to Devil May Cry 4 going multiplatform, Kojima knew exactly where the conversation was going.
"[L]ike I said, MGS4 is aimed for the movie theatre, it's aimed for the PS3, so the game's scenario and graphics need this theatre-type hardware," Kojima responded. "It's when a producer has a game that can work on the 'DVD level' that a game will go multiplatform."
Kojima also stated his belief that any decision made regarding a particular game's multiplatform status is mostly the decision of the game's producer.
The interview also touched on several other hot topics, including motion sensing versus rumble. Kojima stated that he would prefer to include force feedback, and because of the recent settlement between Sony and Immersion, that may be possible. However, he calls the possible implementation of rumble a "race against time", depending on how soon Sony brings forth a controller that once again includes rumble technology.
But Kojima fans also wanted to know if MGS 4 would truly be his last Metal Gear game. In response, Kojima stated:
"If users want more Metal Gear, then I will probably step up as producer, like the James Bond series does. That way I can have new, upcoming directors making MGS while I oversee the project, and then perhaps I can move onto something new."