It looks like Earth's mightiest heroes are no match for Big Boss. A report from VentureBeat reveals that Metal Gear Solid V: the Phantom Pain, the highly acclaimed video game from Hideo Kojima, doubled the opening day gross of Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Citing figures from Adobe Digital Index, the reports says that Phantom Pain raked in an unprecedented $179 million in its first day on shelves. In contrast, Marvel's flagship franchise brought in $84 million in its first 24 hours in theatres.
Tamara Gaffney from Adobe Analytics had this to say of the game's staggering haul:
"The gaming industry is a lot bigger than most marketers realize, These games get more social buzz on opening day than most movies do, and the revenue for one of the top games this year outdid the highest-grossing movie start [Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $91 million] by nearly double."
The figures are even more interesting when the two projects' budgets are placed side by side. Phantom Pain cost a reported $80 million to make while Age of Ultron came in at an eye-popping $250 million.
VentureBeat says the gaming industry has already surpassed the movie business in value and will only continue to grow from here.
Whether the Phantom Pain's success will change developer Konami's stance on big budget gaming remains to be seen. The Japanese studio announced earlier this year that it was planning to focus more on mobile gaming; a decision which angered much of its core fanbase.
"Our main platform will be mobiles. Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like 'items' to selling things like 'features.' Said CEO Hideki Hayakawa to Nikkei Trendy Net.
