Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain ships 5 million copies

Konami has announced that it has sold 5 million copies of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain since the game launched on 1 September. The impressive sales helped the Japanese gaming giant to double its profits during the first half of the fiscal year.

Their latest financial results (via GamesIndustry.biz) revealed ¥51.7 billion (£279.4 million) in earnings for the Digital Entertainment division over the six month period, up from ¥44 billion one year ago, and an operating profit of ¥12.7 billion, up from ¥7.4 billion. Overall Konami made ¥107.7 billion in revenue in the same period and a net profit which has nearly doubled to ¥7.8 billion.

Konami highlighted the success of mobile title Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu, which has been downloaded 17 million times in less than a year. It's successes like this that add fuel the mounting belief that Konami is to abandon AAA game development to focus on lucrative mobile titles and arcade slot machines.

The company has been dogged by reports all year regarding working conditions and an apparent spat between Konami and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima. The belief is that The Phantom Pain will be Kojima's final Metal Gear game but the series will continue.

Recently it was reported that Kojima left the company in early October, but Konami denied the report, saying he had simply gone "on vacation". This year also saw the cancellation of Kojima's Silent Hills project and numerous controversies surrounding Metal Gear Solid 5's microtransactions.

Regardless, Metal Gear Solid 5 has been celebrated critically and proven a commercial success. If it is Kojima's swansong, he has gone out on a high (even though the story is pants). You can read our review of MGS 5 here.

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