First, we found out that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker would carryridiculous amounts of product placement- strange, for a title set during the '70s, but not out of the ordinary for the series. Then came the announcement that the game would be available with a camouflaged, Peace Walker-brandedPSP, which made a sort of sense. Today, however,Sony slapped us upside the head with the announcement of a limited-edition, Peace Walker-brandedW-Series Walkman, and now we don't know what to think.
Above: Metal... Gear?
To be fair, the Walkman, which goes on sale in June atSony Style, seems like a pretty solid deal for Metal Gear fans.Retailing for $60, it only sports a puny 2GB of storage, but it comes pre-loaded with the Peace Walker soundtrack, something the press release was careful to point out won't be available elsewhere in the US. It also comes with a coupon code that will let Peace Walker players download original characters and Walkman-themed merchandise (because apparently it wasn't enough that the game already has an in-game Walkman). Also, it looks like this:
Also, as the images from Sony Style attest, you can put the earbuds back to back to fold the whole thing into a heart shape:
Above: Awwwww...?
All cynicism about excessive product tie-ins aside, an audio player that's basically just a pair of earbuds is going to be just a little bitirresistible to pathological technophiles (like us). Expect these to hit the market around the same time as Peace Walker's June 8 release.
May 12, 2010
Metal Gear Solid's former art director once said he spends "a lot of time fussing over the details of the characters' backside since that's the side the player sees most in-game"
In 1997, Hideo Kojima said the "one thing" he wanted to avoid in Metal Gear Solid was "tedious" cutscenes with characters "blabbering at each other for 4 or 5 minutes"
