Cognition Dissemination: Is Metal Gear Solid V’s Budget Too High?

Anyone ardently follow gaming news is likely aware of Nikkei’s frightening and depressing report describing what’s currently happening at Konami behind the scenes. Though translated versions were previously floating around, they’ve since provided their own English version.

The report explained how the company maintains an iron grip on what their employees do, those who don’t are harshly penalized. And Konami knows when they aren’t followed, because they have cameras everywhere, along with their own internal equivalent to the police. In other words, the futuristic dystopia George Orwell predicted in 1984 has been given form within a goddamned corporation. It’s perhaps no coincidence that this is precisely the year Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is set in.

More devastating info came from the section of the report about games in development. New Tokimeki Memorial and Suikoden (!!) installments were in development, but were cancelled, because that’s how they roll these days. Considering the well-documented tension between Hideo Kojima and the company from earlier this year, it’s no surprise a good chunk of the article was dedicated to this. Kojima Productions operates as Konami Production Department 8 now, and its employees are secluded in an office cut off from the outside world with no internet. Kojima himself is apparently escorted to and from his office by security, though who knows if he can contact the rest of the team while at work.

Given some of the info included, perhaps Konami was a little justified in their motives with Kojima and MGSV’s development team. You’ll want to stress those italicized words hard, by the way.

The report revealed that MGSV:TPP’s budget is somewhere around a whopping $80 million. Though some earlier translations didn’t specify, the English one insinuates that budget estimate is pre-marketing. That’s a huge amount, even by modern AAA video game standards. But upon looking at the game through its plethora of gameplay demos and what it offers, that’s not difficult to imagine.

TPP is an open world title taking place across two massive, sprawling locations in parts of Afghanistan and Africa. Both are rife with buildings containing numerous indoor locations that can be explored for main or side missions, and the player has a number of different approaches they can use to fulfill guidelines. The developers, with Kojima at the helm, wanted this to be as open an experience as possible, perhaps on par with the Grand Theft Auto titles. I’m only cracking the surface with describing its features, which should tell you why it cost so much.

The problem is how Metal Gear games don’t tend to sell anywhere near on part with GTA games. It’s expected to sell within the parameters of a typical AAA game, but cost much more than them to make. That’s a problem for present day Konami, who favors low-cost-high-reward titles like Dragon Collection, a title which the report mentioned marked the company’s turning point. At the time this project started, the team didn’t know they’d be creating the swan song for not only the Metal Gear franchise, but also Konami’s days as a AAA game developer.

Getting Kiefer Sutherland to play the lead role of Big Boss/Punished Snake/Venom Snake (I don’t know which one to go with here) also demanded a hefty sum. Kojima is a huge fan of big budget Hollywood movies, and clearly wanted TPP to be the video game equivalent to them. There’s a good reason why they needed to release a glorified demo in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, as some costs needed to be recouped during TPP’s prolonged development.

The aforementioned budget will rise once marketing costs are factored in, which could cost another $30 million or so. That’s, of course, assuming they’ll do much marketing, as their efforts thus far have amounted to jack. Most of the current promotion is coming from Hideo Kojima’s Twitter account, where he’s expounded upon details that damn well should have been promoted by the company actually selling the game. We should see commercials hitting airwaves soon, but don’t expect much.

This game could do well regardless, thanks to the brand recognition the Metal Gear Solid name attracts, and the online marketing. But Konami won’t care regardless, as they’ve clearly already made up their minds. They could have subsidized the cost with future titles reusing some assets and the Fox Engine, but the company will handle this in a way none of its console gaming fans want.

Konami’s treatment of Kojima Productions is reminiscent of how Take-Two handled Irrational Games, after Bioshock Infinite didn’t set the world on fire sales-wise after six years in development. The truth is that Konami is justified in getting rid of Kojima Productions if they’ll barely profit on a high budget project, but they didn’t have to do it in the most assholish way possible. These transgressions also don’t warrant the company watching over their employees like slaves, and I grieve for the employees that won’t be leaving with MGSV’s development team at this year’s end.

Kojima and the rest of the team will hopefully set up shop elsewhere, but Kojima may not have as large a budget at his disposal unless some AAA development companies want him. In the meantime, enjoy the last Metal Gear of its kind — and perhaps ever — when it releases on September 1st.