Metal Gear Solid 5 director Hideo Kojima has revealed that he did not expect sales of the original game to be significant and this gave him the freedom to do what he wanted when creating the original game.
Speaking to Spike TV's Geoff Keighley during a Twtich AMA, Kojima commented:
"Neither I nor anyone else expected Metal Gear Solid to sell at all. So I was fortunate, because I didn't have to think, ‘I have to sell this game this much,' so pretty much all I did was put in that game all the things I really like. I didn't think at all of how to make this game sell well because I didn't expect it to sell."
As expectations were low, there was no pressure to hit high sale targets. Ultimately, the game sold six million copies.
The first Metal Gear Solid was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and was published on the first PlayStation in 1998 and Kojima said that making the game was extremely tough as he was both producer and director but it was a lot of fun.
Asked if there was any series he'd be interested in working on, Kojima mentioned the Silent Hill franchise but said he might have a problem working on a game in the series because he is a "chicken" and "easily scared by many things." Even so, he would like to work on Silent Hill at some point, even if it meant putting up with regular nightmares.
Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is set for release next week on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One and will be a prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain which Kojima has said will be 100s of times larger.