I wonder where this misguided idea that the MGS series is the "GTA series equivalent in Japan" comes from; it's not. Not even remotely, in fact. The game series which closest mirrors GTA's success outside of Japan, in fact, is Dragon Quest. Final Fantasy is a distant second in comparison; it's rare for a new series-mainstay DQ game released in Japan to sell to fewer than 3.5 million. And like GTA games outside of Japan, DQ games in Japan are very front-loaded in sales; most everybody gets a DQ game as soon as it comes out there, if they can manage it.
The short of it is that MGS4 is not going to do nearly as much for the PS3 (especially not in Japan) as a series-mainstay Dragon Quest game would. Or even a series-mainstay Final Fantasy, for that matter. The former isn't on the PS3 release schedule, and the latter has been in "development Hell" for the last 2 years. So don't expect some sort of mass core-market breakthrough in Japan for the PS3 any time soon.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
