MGS is not a niche game, and it is a system seller. Not to the level of say a final fantasy, Super Mario or Halo, but still a system seller.

What MGS is though (and what causes confusion I guess) is that it is as core as a core game gets. This is not a casual friendly game, unlike alot of core titles that can be played by the casual gamer. Heck I've seen a casual gamer pick up and play splinter cell, yet I was frustrated beyond belief when I played MGS1 for the first time (granted I was like 12).

I guess you could call it a niche game if you consider the core gamer market to be a niche market of gaming now (which thanks to the Wii that is not such a wild comment to make).

@Colonelstubbs: Careful there, you may create a postwhore with that last comment :) 

It's a niche title, since it's a lot of the same people buying it again and again (the friends I have that are getting it have at least played all of them, if not owned). However, this is still a 3 million niche. It really won't push hardware since a lot of the people who want it probably already have a PS3. I'm thinking that we will see a small-to-medium boost for a week or two, and then a decline back to normal levels.

MGS4 WILL be a system seller, probably due to the fact a few hundred thousand bundles have been pre-ordered

Metal Gear is a system seller. I am proof of that, Metal Gear is the only reason I own a Playstation 3 right now. If it wasn't being released exclusively and was multiplatform I would not have purchased a PS3. Is it going to move mass systems? No, as most people that are hardcore fans of the series already have a PS3.

Metal Gear Solid is certainly not a niche product. No game that sells in the 3-5m range is anything approaching niche status. At the same time, it also doesn't draw the huge mass market crowd that you see from games like Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo, Halo, Guitar Hero, etc. You could say that it's a game for "gamers", those who obsessively follow news online and purchase lots of games. For that reason, I think it's unlikely to move that many systems, because those who are the biggest Metal Gear fans are the same people who mostly already own consoles.

The reviews trickling in have been interesting for the latest Metal Gear Solid, since they seem to be either 10/10 "greatest game ever!" or 8/10 "too many cinematics/cut scenes". You can pretty much tell whether or not the reviewer was a huge Kojima fan based on the score awarded. (Every review says that this game will be loved by its current fans... and confuse the hell out of newcomers.) The fact that Metal Gear Solid 4 seems to cater to the existing fan base may also limit its sales potential somewhat, although we'll never know what it's true sales would have been, since it's going to be bundled with all those systems.

They gave 10 to Halo 3 and only 8 to Bioshock ! Damn' that's weird imo.

And about the topic, I don't know if MGS4 will be a system seller for the entire market, but, for me, this is definitely the game I was expecting to get  PS3. And no review will change that (8/10 ain't that bad anyway !) 

MGS1 was a system seller.

All the other MGS2 are really overhyped niche titles, that's why 2 sold very well, 3 sold not so very well, and 4 will sell worse than 3.

It will boost the console sales for 3 weeks maximum. Opening week will see a huge a huge burst from the bundles, second week the leftover bundles, third week people who didnt pick it up straightaway...

Then the game will have long legs

I think it will move systems but it won't save the PS3 as it would take multiple games to save the PS3. The PS3 is doing just fine in America and Europe but not so much in Japan where the system only sells like 8K/week. To save the PS3 in Japan, they would need FFXIII and GT5. WKC could also do a decent boost in Japan because it is a JRPG like FFXIII and WKC is suppose to be pretty accessible with only the X button being used in the game's battle system. The Japanese go crazy for those JRPGs.

Thank you