I have wondered about this question before. I don't understand how someone can have the means to play MGS4 and yet not go out and buy it. In my opinion the only two games currently available on the PS3 that are as good as MGS4 are Siren: BC and Wipeout HD, but these two games have even less sales than MGS4.

Obviously there are plenty of other great games, I've had my PS3 since launch and there has never been a time when I havn't had a decent game to play, but why would you pass up on Metal Gear Solid?

I accept it is simply a fact, a fact that applies not only to the previous MGS games but to all top tier games (why, for example, do over 100 million PS2 owners not own San Andreas?), but it nevertheless leaves me puzzled at the rationale of my fellow PS3 owners.

I have it, but it was my least favorite MGS game. The gameplay to story ratio was way off, even for an MGS game, which wouldn't have been too bad if the story had been remotely good or at least interesting. Hopefully the next one will be better.

Wow, you guys need to get some perspective.

Alot of people just don't want to shoot people in their video games
Alot of people don't want that much movie in their game

And expecting a game to get a 50% attach rate is asking way too much

Super Smash Bros Melee had a 1/3 attach rate
Halo 2 Had a 1/3 Attach Rate
Not even Wii Play has a 50% attach rate and it's a $10 game

I've never played any of the previous MGS games so that's what I'm going to do as soon as I get the time, then once I beat all of them I'll get MGS4

I never liked the controls in MGS1 when i played the demo, and i never liked the controls in MGS3 which i bought it a 3 game pack for $20. And for those reasons i will never buy the game, and they never put out a demo which might of changed my mind if the controls were fixed.

because they can't grasp the story behind the mgs series and mgo sucks

okay first of all I think Griffin is stupid to think a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 didn't improve on the controls from the previous games.  Ofcourse the controls were fixed.  For the record, the controls are completely different.  They are now more like american shooter games.  You even have the option to play first person the whole game if you want to.(although I don't recommend it because it makes it a lot harder to be stealthy, which is the whole point of the game.)

Now back to the original question, there are multiple reasons.  Some people just don't care because there ignorant.  My friend wouldn't buy Metal Gear Solid 4 but when I told him to preorder resistance 2 he did it in a second. He had never heard of metal gear solid before.  This is because there marketing campaign sucked.  Another friend I showed it to hated all the cutscenes.  Another friend I showed it to just sucked really really badly at the game, so bad, I told him it wasn't worth getting it.  Metal Gear Solid games are among the hardest shooters.  It took me a few trys just to get past the first level of the original Metal Gear Solid.

You can put a couple to a few millions of people in the list of consumers who own the PS3 to play bluray movies exclusively.

I can understand people buying it for a blu-ray player, but you'd think they'd realise it is a console and pick up a few games for it. Otherwise, there are standalone players for half the price.

Uncharted is also very good, also sold a lot less than it should have. When these games are outsold by a mediocre action racing game, something is wrong.