Hideo Kojima Did Not Foresee Metal Gear Solid’s Global Success

<p>Hideo Kojima&comma; the creator of one of the most influential and popular series of all time&comma; <em>Metal Gear Solid&comma;<&sol;em> is celebrating the game&&num;8217&semi;s 25th anniversary and<em> <&sol;em>spoke to Weekly Famitsu about the game&&num;8217&semi;s beginnings and it&&num;8217&semi;s unforeseen success outside of Japan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I made <em>Metal Gear Solid<&sol;em> almost as a hobby&comma;&&num;8221&semi; remarked Kojima&period; &&num;8220&semi;I had always been making games on minor platforms and had never stood at the forefront of the stage&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He did not actually realize his own level of fame and success in the US and Europe until well past the game&&num;8217&semi;s release overseas&period; It was only during a tour to promote <em>MGS<&sol;em> that he became more conscious of his fame when more and more people began to recognize him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When speaking of the game&&num;8217&semi;s direction and what he felt to be most important in the series&comma; Kojima remarked that it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t necessarily the stealth aspect of <em>Metal Gear Solid&period; &&num;8220&semi;<&sol;em>For me&comma; the action mixed with the story had always been more important than the &&num;8216&semi;stealth&&num;8217&semi; side of the game&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he stated&period; Ultimately&comma; it was this feeling that influenced the use of character models for cutscenes rather than CGI&comma; so as to create a more compelling and engaging experience to further support story and gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Whilst on his tour promoting the 25th anniversary of the series&comma; Kojima remarks that one of the most popular questions posed to him is whether the game&&num;8217&semi;s complex story was developed from the very beginning&comma; to which he replies with a laugh&comma; &&num;8220&semi;of course not&excl;&&num;8221&semi;  He then goes on to say&comma; &&num;8220&semi;We had to struggle to make the plot lines meet&period; We did manage to clear a lot of things up with <em>Metal Gear Solid 4&colon; Guns of the Patriots<&sol;em>&comma; but fans still point out small inconsistencies&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since it is the 25th anniversary of one of the most beloved series ever made&comma; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;konami&period;jp&sol;mg25th&sol;">a website<&sol;a> has been created to promote it and a celebratory party will be held on August 30&period; Also&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;metal-gear-solid-4-trophy-patch-incoming&sol;">as reported earlier<&sol;a> <em>Metal Gear Solid 4 <&sol;em>will be getting a trophy patch next month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;kotaku&period;com&sol;5925347&sol;hideo-kojima-never-expected-metal-gear-solid-to-do-well-in-the-west">Kotaku<&sol;a>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;