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When we predict sales of a game we have to consider the size of the userbase the game is on.
All Metal Gear Solid games so far sold somewhere between 500k to 1 million units in Japan as far as I know. But the current situation is that all core games on the PS3 have seen weaker sales than their predecessors on PSX and PS2.
This causes retailers to be careful when they pre-order games. The Japanese PS3 install base is just not big enough to take any risks for them. If the game sells out during the first week they will order more copies, though.
The same goes for America: Pre-orders might be lower than some people thought but honestly, what did you guys expect? 1 million first week on a 5 million install base?
Metal Gear Solid was always a game that sold best in Europe, which is where we should expect it to sell best again this time.
Edit: I think we are talking about retail pre-Orders here, aren´t we? TheSource always talks about retail pre-orders in his articles.
