2/2
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) July 20, 2022
I didn't want to put "METAL GEAR2" in the title, but the sales staff said to put "METAL GEAR2" in the title! So we ended up with both.
When you hear the name “Metal Gear”, you likely think about the Metal Gear Solid franchise that captured the imagination of gamers everywhere starting on the PS1, and going on all the way until the PS3. But most people forget that the original games in the franchise were on the platforms before that and had a much different feel and look due to the consoles they were on (in this case, the Nintendo platforms they were on). Hideo Kojima decided to go and reveal a history lesson on one of those games, and it was quite revealing indeed.
In a set of tweets, Hideo Kojima reveals that he wanted to do something different with the name of the second game, modeling it after the Indiana Jones saga. But instead, the sales department told him he HAD to make it in line with the previous game and thus the name was set.
The irony here of course is that once he went to the Solid line of the games, he kept that correction and just gave each game a unique subtitle like Snake Eater, The Phantom Pain, or something else along those lines.
Of course, the Solid line ended after Kojima left Konami after a “bitter breakup” and he went on to make his own studio where he made Death Stranding (a very Kojima-style name) and is already at work making different titles for different companies.
So where does this leave us? Well, it leaves us with an appreciation of gaming, as well as a lesson that even Kojima, one of the most-praised people in all of gaming, had to take orders from people at times, and sometimes it was for the better. But he also knew that when it became too much, it was better to just do things on his own.
Source: Twitter