Metal Gear Solid HD Collection given release date for PS Vita
Friday, May 18, 2012 1:08 PM
Konami has announced that Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will hit PlayStation Vitas on June 12th this year.
Acclaimed director Hideo Kojima is behind this new collection featuring two classic PS2 titles Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - with heavily upgraded graphics of course.
However, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker did not make the cut for this Vita release.
Those who also own the Metal Gear Solid collection for the PS3 will be able to transfer their saved data over to their Vitas to take advantage of both its touch-screen and rear touchpad in order to take Solid Snake to the next level of espionage.
Using just your fingers, Konami says you will be able to zoom in on cut-scenes, peer around corners, interrogate enemies, cycle through weapons and perform rapid knife attacks.
PlayStation will be hoping that Snake can kick some life into Vita sales given that with just 1.8 million units sold worldwide so far, the handheld console is well down on the ten million sales target set by Sony for 2013.
Although the Vita is a cracking little concept, analysts believe it is being hurt badly by the seemingly unstoppable rise of the mobile gaming industry.
Commenting on the issue, RW Baird's Colin Sebastian said: "Vita is a great dedicated game device, but the market for those products continues to shrink as smart devices become better platforms for games."
As a result, there is plenty of speculation that Sony will implement a 3DS-style price cut in order to shift some more Vitas.
Asif Khan, CEO of Panoptic Management Consultants, said: "The price cut of the 3DS was exactly the catalyst Nintendo needed to jumpstart sales after a similar lacklustre launch.
"That being said, Sony has bigger problems than a Vita price cut can solve."
However, a legendary game like Metal Gear Solid might be just the tonic Sony needs.