The only territory where Metal Gear Solid 3 showed a decline in sales was America (1 some million versus 2 some million for MGS2) and it came out at the same time as GTA SA and Halo 2.
Fenrir said:
Snake is so dead. Kojima will kill him off simply so that he can wash his hands clean off the franchise. He had no interest in doing this one and is back only because he was coaxed into it by death threats.
That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Anyway, back in reality, Kojima said that every game is going to be his last Metal Gear game because he has some other ideas for games he wants to do, but he can never find a suitable replacement to helm the series so he ends up being drawn back into it each and every time and enjoying the creative process of workign on a new MG game.
He did say he has a Love/Hate relationship because he love Metal Gear, working on the games, and the franchise, but he's tied down to it. Though 4 will be the last game he is actively involved in he will stay on as producer of the series for any new games and help with the story, but that he has a lot of ideas he wants to make into games before he dies, not just making 29 entries of Metal Gear.
He never said the few and far between death threats were the reason he started working on 4, in fact he says he and his team laugh about them, at the time they were like "whoa" but the work on MGS4 had already begun with Kojima in the place he's been in all during its development.
And because of that, I get the feeling there isn't a chance in hell MGS4 can equal the greatness of the first (and best one) in the series. What it WILL do, is simply provide an appropriate closure to the whole "Snake" saga.
Still, even if no game touches the initial greatness of MGS1, MGS3 was probably one of the ebst games of last gen period, and MGS4 will be a AAA game as well, so oh well.
Metal Gear Portable Ops is still schedules for "Winter 2006" according to the new trailer, I can't wait for it... it's going to be sooooo good.