Kojima reveals that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was supposed to be MGS5 at first - AUTOMATON WEST
On Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's 14th birthday, Hideo Kojima provided some juicy background tidbits on the 2010 PSP title
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On the 14th anniversary of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker’s release, Hideo Kojima took to X to provide some juicy background tidbits on the 2010 PSP title.
Although Peace Walker was the fourth Metal Gear game to be made for Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP), it was the first game for the handheld to be directed, designed and written by series creator Hideo Kojima. This gave it the genetics of a mainline MGS title, however, right off the bat, Kojima reveals that the international marketing department were not keen on a portable title being a numbered entry.
Post translation: It’s 14 years since PW went on sale. I was still in my mid 40s. At the time, many game companies were shifting towards developing apps for flip phones. After making MGS4, I realized that it is vital to have a proprietary engine. Games would only make a vertical leap once such an engine was completed. In the meantime, I proposed making Peace Walker in order to evolve MGS horizontally (i.e. across platforms). At first, it was called MGS5PW, but this received strong opposition from overseas marketers, so I abandoned the consecutive numbering. As it was on PSP, the target demographic was lowered to elementary, middle and high school students. I aimed for this young generation so that the MGS series could gain fans from two generations- parents and their children.
Post translation: But because it was on PSP, we couldn’t hope for it to be a worldwide hit like before (i.e. the series’ mainline console entries). Therefore, we had to keep production costs to a minimum. We couldn’t use motion capture or Hollywood composers. Consequently, we utilized the digital animation techniques from “Bande Dessinée.” The music was done by an in-house composer. “Calling to The Night” (the theme song for MGS Portable Ops) was good, so I asked Honda to do the main theme for PW too. He created a number of melodies and parts for the song, and these were combined, with the song being gradually created over time. From the start, Love’s Deterrent was the only title I had in mind. I wanted Calling to The Night’s vocalist Natasha Farrow to do the vocals, but she wasn’t in Japan. Instead, we decided upon Donna (Burke), who was the president of the (talent) office.
