Konami issued a press release, pushing back MSG4 from Q1 to Q2 2008. For those that don’t understand moneyspeak, that’s around April, May or June.

“Konami has decided to delay the title’s release in order to make further improvements to the quality of the game and provide even greater enjoyment for more customers worldwide,” Konami said in a press release.

Does this suck? Yep. Big ones. But here are a few points: The season is already super-saturated with games. Chances are, Metal Gear being late means more people will actually be able to afford to buy the game and maybe, just maybe, new gamers can buy a PS3 to play it on. Another point is that Sony drops PS3 prices like Britney Spears drops babies (ohhh, burn!). So, hey, by Q2, there may actually be a cheaper PS3. I wouldn’t put it past them. Plus, Q2 is a quiet gaming month, so MGS4 dropping then will cause all sorts of insanity. Add to the fact that delays usually mean improvements and I see nothing but green fields and sunshine. What do you guys think? Is this delay good or horrible?

[via NextGen]

Jayslacks

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

According to Brian Dreyer, business development manager at Frontline Studios (Sadness for Wii, in-development), third parties are hesitant to develop for Nintendo platforms because of historically poor performance for non-first party games (gee, that sounds familiar). In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Dreyer claims that while Ubisoft has jumped in feet first (albeit with 2 original titles and a host of ports) and Sega has released a Wii-specific version with a new Sonic game on the way, developers like Capcom and Konami have little announced for the new console. So far, this hesitance has proved financially sound, as a first party title is still the top selling game on the platform, with Red Steel and Rayman coming a distant second and third respectively. Third party software sales also saw a diluting effect from the pack-in domestically of Wii-sports, effectively mitigating the need for third party titles that other console launches have seen. In case it isn’t obvious, third parties like it when you have to buy one of their games before you can actually play the system.

The question is, if independent developers like Frontline are willing to develop for the platform due to its comparatively low development costs and the possibilities of new means of interaction, will they be able to find publishers willing to take a chance in hostile waters? And if they do, will Wii owners actually buy it?

-Aegies