So I just beat Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots for the Playstation 3 system and let me say….WOW…An absolutely incredible game!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I thought it was well made with a top notch, in depth story that had me glued to the screen sometimes watching some of the excellent cut scenes. Not mentioning the incredibly smooth gameplay though…Konami has taken a definite step in the right direction for the series here! The Marketing of Metal Gear Solid 4 was something that I did not think was done very well however, but you will learn more of this in just a bit.

One excellent innovative little feature that caught my attention throughout the game was that during special parts of the cut scenes you could actually hit the L1 button and change the camera view and hit the R1 button and view a flashback from the story of past Metal Gear Solid games. Just this little addon gives more depth to the game because it is just like you are remembering the flashbacks yourself. This is in the story mode I am talking about here.

Now even though I enjoyed playing this game a lot, as a marketer I was disappointed in their marketing efforts. I thought A LOT more could have been done with their marketing campaign to not just bring back other loyal gamers to the series, but to catch the attention of the ever growing gaming market. They seemed to have a mediocre campaign going in total which could have been dramatically increased.

I don’t know the specific sales numbers, but do know that they could have been much better. For a game that was released solely for the Playstation 3 system, a much better marketing campaign could and should have been completed. For example: I took a look for quality clips to show you here, you know through viral advertising, and there were insane amounts of trailers being more than 2 minutes in length and very few quick ads designed to build interest quickly. This was a big mistake in my personal opinion. But here is one ad that is decent:

If the quality of this game was any indication, the marketing easily could have been to the scale of its fellow Gaming release Grand Theft Auto 4. Both games are new additions for their series, but the hype built for GTA4 far surpassed that of Metal Gear Solid 4 otherwise known as MGS4. Did you even know Metal Gear Solid 4 was being released? Personally I didn’t until I went to the store and saw it on the shelf.

MGS4 has some advertisements placed throughout the game. This theory has been a very controvercial topic as many gamers do not know if they like the commercialization of marketing within games. Within this game specifically though, I feel that the advertising actually adds a bit to the game. For example: In one of the many cut scenes an apple laptop was being used. It clearly showed this distinction and it actually gave more of a realistic feel to the game. Apple had major product placement in the game which really did not bother me whatsoever. There are other ways of this product placement throughout the game too though…one of which I never used. Snake can listen to an ipod during his missions if you choose to do so. This is not a necessity by any means and is only at your choice.

Now to show the power associated with online viral marketing, a YouTube user created a tv spot ad for the game which in my opinion is better than most of the other ads available promoting the game:

I’m sure that ad caught your attention now didn’t it…you possibly even
now want to try out this amazing game!

Now I am a supporter of the Playstation 3…not that I don’t enjoy playing the Xbox 360 too though. I have been a Playstation since it originally came out. The fact that the Playstation 3 has a built in blue ray player is a huge advantage over the other systems and is possibly one of the main selling points for the system itself as it is up against a monster in Microsoft with the Xbox 360 and the highly innovative Nintendo Wii.

Here’s an example of one of the gameplay trailers I mentioned above:

For now, Metal Gear Solid 4 is not available for anything but the Playstation system. There has been much hype built however claiming that it will be released for the Xbox 360 about a year after the PS3…but I seriously doubt that. Because of the depth of the game, the size will not fit on a normal dvd…even a few of them. This is why it is so well fit for the PS3 since it reads (in my opinion, the way of the future) blue ray discs. The entire game fits on a single disc and as you already know I am very satisfied with it!

If I was an Xbox 360 user, I would actually consider purchasing a PS3 just to be able to play this game…along with watch blue ray movies! Yes, there are amazing games for the 360 that aren’t for the PS3…this one may just be the same…except as a PS3 exclusive. But with all the hype out, I don’t know this for a fact.

Overall, I highly recommend Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. I would probably personally rate it around 9.5 out out 10, so in other words, truly incredible!

To Your Success!
Mark Garland

Tags: exclusive to the PS3, Konami, Konami Marketing, Konami MGS4 Marketing, Marketing Metal Gear Solid 4, Marketing MGS4, Metal Gear Solid 4 ad, Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer, Metal Gear Solid 4. MGS4, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots, MGS, Playstation, Playstation 3, Playstion 3 exclusive game, PS3 exclusive, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Product Reviews, campaign review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.