What If Metal Gear Solid... May 24,2007 - Ed. Note: As of this writing our publication is still branded at Amped News, but throughout the course of this feature we will refer to ourselves under our new brand name, Gamer 2.0)

Welcome to “What If,” a brand new feature from Gamer 2.0 in which we take a look at hypothetical situations that could happen or could have happened in an alternate reality. Please remember that this feature is purely speculative and hypothetical and is meant as merely an enjoyable read for all of those who have ever wondered “What if…” If you have any situations you would like to see us tackle please e-mail our managing editor Anthony Perez.

Situation: What if Konami signed an exclusive deal with Microsoft to publish the Metal Gear Solid series only on the Xbox 360?

Anarchy in the streets; that’s what would happen if Metal Gear Solid ever jumped ship exclusively to the Xbox 360. That’s not because people dislike the Xbox 360, but because PlayStation 3 owners looking for their fix of Solid Snake would be left controlling a naked Raiden in the backwards compatible Metal Gear Solid 2.

Why would Konami do it? Well, they honestly wouldn’t as there is no significant reason, and any money Microsoft can waft in front of their nose would likely be chump change compared to the potential profits of a multiplatform version of Metal Gear Solid 4. Though it took some time for the Xbox and even GameCube to see their MGS ports, they did eventually land on those racks at local GameStop retailers across the country and made Konami enough money to retire half of its workforce. But playing devil’s advocate as we are, we’ll go ahead and assume that Konami was wooed with an incredibly lucrative deal including not only truckloads of greenbacks for the exclusive rights but various royalties and incredibly generous cuts of software sales. While such a deal might cost Microsoft a lot, they would be willing to part ways with that money in order to move more units of the 360 itself, which by that time would be sold for more than it cost to produce – or better known as “at a profit” in business lingo.

The move would actually have very little effect on Konami itself as they would still make enough money to legitimize development of the game, but the deal would have dramatic implications on the war between the Xbox 360 and PS3. Sony would suffer greatly from the defection, and out of fear of losing other major franchises after the loss of Metal Gear Solid and Devil May Cry, would overlook its losses on the PS3 by adding to the debt by signing an exclusive deal for the Final Fantasy series and even purchasing a few talented development houses.

From that point, it would be hard to tell what would happen. The Xbox 360 would definitely hold at least the second place spot in the three-way war if the Wii continues selling at its current pace with the PlayStation 3 backing into third. Sony, though losing out in this generation, might end up inadvertently strengthening its first party division through its drastic measures in staving off the Xbox 360, and end up producing such high quality software that it could then capture the third place market. If Blu-Ray continues its reported dominance of HD-DVD, Sony would be in prime position to market the PlayStation 3 as a truly next-generation home entertainment machine, which would help it maintain a solid market share.

Conversely, the PlayStation 3 could fall under the weight of its own debt and have its gaming division, once a textbook example of how to run a game console manufacturer, fall so far into the red that the intense bleeding simply could not be stopped. While an extremely unlikely scenario, Sony should remember just how influential one game can be in deciding a console’s success – yeah, we’re thinking of you two, Final Fantasy VII and Grand Theft Auto III.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More

Review: Boom Blox	5/15/08
Preview: Enemy Territory: Quak...	5/14/08
Preview: Enemy Territory: Quak...	5/14/08
Review: echochrome	5/13/08
Review: echochrome	5/13/08
Preview: Strong Bad's Cool Gam...	5/9/08
Preview: Strong Bad's Cool Gam...	5/9/08