Metal Gear Solid sales expectations were low, Kojima says

The first Metal Gear Solid wasn't expected to perform well at retail, series creator Hideo Kojima shared during a Twitch TV AMA with Geoff Keighley, explaining the low expectations allowed him to do whatever he liked with the game.

"Neither I nor anyone else expected Metal Gear Solid to sell at all,"Kojima said, answering a question submitted by 3D Realm's George Broussard who asked what was his favorite Metal Gear game to develop. "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 really like."

"I didn't think at all of how to make this game sell well because I didn't expect it to sell," he added, saying the low expectations removed the pressure of hitting high sales targets. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published on the PlayStation One in 1998. Kojima said that while the period during the game's development was very tough because he had to shoulder so much as the producer and director, it was really fun.

When asked if he could resurrect or direct any franchise he wanted, Kojima said that he would like to work on a Silent Hill game, although he may have a problem doing that because he is a "chicken" and "easily scared by many things." He added that hopefully he will be able to work on it in the future but he would have to prepare himself for daily nightmares.

The latest installation in the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, is the standalone prologue to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. The PS4 and PS3 versions of Ground Zeroes will include an exclusive "Déjà Vu" mission to bring players back to the original Metal Gear Solid. Kojima said in the recent interview that Ground Zeroes will not receive additional DLC in the period before Phantom Pain's release because the marquee game will be delayed otherwise.

Kojima revealed last year that Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain were broken up to offer fans something to play while the latter is still in development. The prologue is slated to launch in spring 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.