According to a recent report, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain grossed 179 million dollars globally on its opening day.
These are some pretty impressive numbers for the “finale” in the franchise. Compare this to the film industry, Metal Gear Solid V grossed more on its opening day than Marvel’s latest comic movies combined (Ant man at 57 million, and Age of Ultron 84 million dollars on their opening days).
While I think it’s inaccurate to compare the videogame industry to the film industry, both being completely different mediums for entertainment and movie tickets tend not to have a 70 dollar price tag, it’s interesting to see that, as comic and game culture are being pushed more into the mainstream, interest in videogames are slowly starting to surpass that of cinema.
However, for Metal Gear Solid V, 179 million dollars on its opening day does seem pretty paltry compared to Grand Theft Auto V’s 815 million dollar opening day. While it is worth mentioning that GTA is a more widely accessible game, being an experience tailored to all types of players (and even kids for heaven’s sake) probably helped push its sales far beyond anything that MGSV could achieve (MGS being a game for a more specific, hardcore audience).
One can’t help but wonder if Konami had been a better company in the days leading up to MGSV’s release, or leaving Kojima’s name on the product would’ve helped push sales higher than the 179 million mark. I myself wonder if Konami had shown a bit more respect for the game industry, the man who made MGS such a phenomenon, or its own audience, might have drawn more fans of the game company, or the MGS franchise to purchase it.
What’s even more interesting, Kojima is up to his usual tricks taking to Twitter in a couple of bizarre tweets referencing a third volume of a Star Wars newspaper he purchased, and the third episode of true detective. Given MGSV ends on its “second chapter” and many fans felt the game ended without a concise ending that tied up the loose threads, one can only speculate if MGSV financial success might merit a “third chapter” DLC to conclude the game thoroughly.
While it’s good to see MGSV was a financial success, considering it’s 80 million dollar budget, it’s actual gross figures are closer to 100 million which, while is still a ton of money, is relatively small for a AAA blockbuster game like MGS.