Kojima – MGS5 will prove to younger-gen high-end games are still worth playing

By Stephany Nunneley

Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima feels the popularity of social and mobile gaming with the younger generation has pulled interest away from high-end games, specially in Japan.

Speaking in an interview with GamesTM, Kojima said with MGS5, he wanted to prove to the younger generation that high-end games are still worth playing.

“We’ve seen a phenomenon around the world,” Kojima said. “Young people are losing interest in high-end games and focusing on mobile and social titles, especially in Japan.

“I wanted to show people that Japanese high-end games are Ground Zeroesg and that big Japanese games still have a future.”

He also touched upon splitting Ground Zeroes and the Phantom Pain into two releases.

“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t necessarily a strategic move. The Phantom Pain is roughly 200 times bigger than Ground Zeroes,” Kojima explained.

“A game that big wouldn’t be ready for next-gen launch windows, and we didn’t have any Japanese titles that would be available. At that time, the Ground Zeroes portion was almost complete and a lot of fans were asking for a prologue, so that’s the decision we came to. That was the reasoning behind the move.”

Ground Zeroes launches on March 18 for PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The Phantom Pain is expected later.