Around here, we’re of the opinion that the PS3 price cut is a good start for a beleaguered Sony to get back into the game in the little console skirmish going on right now. It would seem that Amazon shoppers are of a similar opinion, as sales there are up around 500-700 percent on the system, depending on when you look. However, agreement is more difficult on the topic of whether a hundred dollars less is enough to really help the system move. Chuf’s gut reaction is that it is, while I think the 360 is still too expensive to hit decent sales numbers, which would put the PS3 at least another hundred dollars out of range of a sales snowball effect, as it were. Only time will tell (as Amazon sales numbers aren’t a great indicator of general sales, given the popularity of HD-DVD there), but it would seem that Konami, one of Sony’s most aggressive supporters in the last two console generations, might agree with me:
“I wonder if Sony can win back user support by the price cut of just $100,” Kazumi Kitaue, the head of Konami’s North American and European operations, told Reuters in an interview ahead of this week’s E3 video game industry trade show.
“I don’t expect a substantial impact … With $500, you can buy a personal computer.”
So, that’s not super-happy-joyfully positive, but the really damning statement is a few grafs down:
Kitaue said Konami may need to expand the target hardware for its blockbuster fighting game Metal Gear Solid, which has so far been developed for Sony’s PlayStation machines, to other consoles in the future to recoup development costs.
“Since Metal Gear Solid was born for the PlayStation, we would like to keep it a PlayStation game. But we might have to take some steps,” Kitaue said.
As an aside, it’s fun sometimes to spot the errors in mainstream press gaming coverage that would seem little to a general reporter, but would appear especially egregious to gaming press, as evidenced here in the reference to Metal Gear Solid as a “blockbuster fighting game”. Maybe I’ve just been playing it wrong all these years. Jokes and errors aside, this is about the closest thing to official hemming and hawing from someone at Konami about the destination of MGS4 since it was announced. There’s been a lot of speculation about the possibilities of a 360 port for the title, but until now it’s been sources that can’t be cited and insiders that refuse to be named. However, this doesn’t mean a 360 appearance for the title is confirmed. We’re still stuck in wait and see mode. As long as you’re not waiting to see at Konami’s E3 presentation, where Metal Gear is mysteriously absent from their lineup.
-Aegies