Metal Gear maintains solid sales

[01.08.98] » Added difficultly levels help propel sales of the English release past its Japanese counterpart's.

    While Zelda 64 continues to break every sales record in sight, the PlayStation's big game isn't selling too poorly either. Konami recently repored that Metal Gear Solid has just passed the two million mark in worldwide sales.

    Surprisingly, over half -- about 1.25 million copies -- of the game's sales come from the North American version, with the Japanese edition selling only around 800,000 copies. This is probably due in large part to the fact that the American version features four different difficulty levels, giving the game a lot more replay value. The Japanese release only has one level, which is the same as the English "Easy" level, and is easily beaten in a few days.

    Of course, another portion of Metal Gear Solid's sales is still yet to come, as the game won't be released in Europe until February. As compensation for the long time taken to convert the game to PAL, Konami is promising to add some extras into the European version, as well as selling a special limited edition of the game similar to the one released in Japan.