Konami recently confirmed that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and its prologue title, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes will in fact be released as separate games. During an interview with Famitsu magazine, series creator Hideo Kojima explains how the decision came to be.
Famitsu starts out the interview with a question many of us have wondered: what is the reason behind the decision of making Ground Zeroes its own game?
“If I were to put it in Hollywood movie terms, the prologue, that is Ground Zeroes, would be similar to the first 10-15 minutes that are meant to ‘captivate’ [the audience],” says Kojima. “At first, something will happen, then the title will appear like ‘bam!’ and then nine years later, a big event will be the start [of Metal Gear Solid V]. That’s how the story will be connected.”
“As far as the game itself goes, The Phantom Pain will take place in an immense open world map, while Ground Zeroes takes place in a smaller open world,” he continues.
“It would’ve actually been better to release it all at once, but by the way things are going, it appears likely that Phantom Pain will be coming out around the time the PlayStation 4 becomes more spread out. That means we would’ve had to make people wait a while longer.”
Famitsu points out that producing an open world title of such a grand scale must require a lot of time and resource, so it’s quite understandable if it ends up taking a little longer.
“Prior to the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V, last year, we showed a Fox Engine implementation video,” says Kojima. “Then, we also showed the Fox Engine in a presentation video at GDC 2013. Since we revealed information on a regular basis, there were many who believed that Metal Gear Solid V was already complete, and there were many voices from fans saying ‘we want to play it soon’.”
“However, The Phantom Pain has enormous volume, so it will require much more time,” continues Kojima. “So, together with the marketing staff, we consulted ‘what ifs’ and such, and came to the decision of allowing fans to at least play the prologue, ahead of time. We want to offer it for as cheap as possible, so at first we thought about making it as a download only; however, after thinking about people around the world, and how some places don’t have the best connectivity, we’re preparing a physical version.”
For those of you wondering, Kojima also states players who have save data from Ground Zeroes will have something good to look forward to. Additionally, they’re also brainstorming ideas to give a certain merit to those who purchase the upcoming prologue game.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will be coming out in spring 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
