Metal Gear Solid: nobody expected PSOne classic's success, says Kojima

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has said nobody expected the first Metal Gear Solid game to be as successful as it was, which is why he felt comfortable taking risks.

The news comes via Kojima's Twitch AMA, and was a response to being asked what his favourite Metal Gear game is. He chose the first Metal Gear Solid, because it was the first time he stepped into the producer's role in addition to serving as game designer.

"I had to do pretty much everything for that game, which was very tough. It was a very difficult time, but at the same time it was really fun," he said.

"Neither I nor anyone else expected Metal Gear Solid to sell at all, so I was fortunate, because I didn’t have to think, ‘I have to sell this game this much’ so pretty much all I did was put in that game all the things I liked."

Not expecting the game to be a hit meant Kojima could just do whatever he wanted, essentially.

“I didn’t think at all of how to sell well because I didn’t expect it to sell. Also, people surrounding me didn’t have expectations," he added.

"I didn’t have the pressure of ‘you have to sell this much,’ so that was really good.”

MGS1 was not the first entry in the franchise as a whole, but it was the first to utilise 3D graphics and release with the "solid" moniker. Kojima said his staff went to SWAT team demonstrations and military training to research the game. Famously, the team also built the game's maps out of Lego. It was one of the first visually impressive games to use in-engine cutscenes as opposed to pre-rendered cinematics; basically, it blew our tiny minds.

The next entry in the Metal Gear series is Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, which arrives on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on March March 18 in North America and March 20 in Europe. It is the prologue and tutorial for The Phantom Pain, and cheaper than a full game despite apparently containing many hours of replayability.

Thanks, Siliconera.