Huh, no wonder Konami’s reluctant to get back into triple-A video game development. Forbes reports that development costs for the publisher’s latest title, Metal Gear Solid 5, hit nearly $80 million.
That’s not including marketing or distribution, which means that the game will presumably have to double its current figure of 3 million copies sold in order to break even.
Which may happen at some point, but even if it does it’s fair to say that MGS5 won’t be regarded as a commercial success by Konami. The firm is never going to detail how the game’s development budget was spent, so we’ll never know for sure, but there are rumours circulating that Hideo Kojima called for major revisions of certain elements of the game, which may account for both the inflated cost of development and his strained relationship with the Konami bigwigs.
Metal Gear Solid 5 is a fantastic game with astonishing production values, but in the current market that’s no barometer for success.
