Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Producer Explains Why it Won’t be Dubbed “A Hideo Kojima Game”

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is going to be worth keeping an eye on for a multitude of reasons, and the fact that it’s the first major release for the franchise since the departure of its illustrious creator, Hideo Kojima, from Konami is surely high on that list. But though the game is billed as pretty much a shot-for-shot remake of the original Metal Gear Solid 3, it’s not going to be dubbed as ‘A Hideo Kojima Game’ like the original was, and Konami’s Noriaki Okamura, lead series producer, has explained why. 

Speaking in a ‘Production Hotline’ episode recently uploaded by Konami on YouTube, after showcasing the upcoming remake’s opening, Okamura touched on how it will handle credits- by specifically listing the original game’s development team as such.

“The development team had a lot of internal discussion about how exactly we should do the credits, but we settled on one thing right away… we weren’t changing the names, so it was always going to be the original staff, not the current team,” Okamura explained. “From there, we had to say, okay, so how do we do it? We thought about just leaving in the original credits from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but we also had to try and consider how members of the original staff might view it. For instance, if we had changed the credits, would they be hurt they weren’t included? And on the other hand, some would probably think, ‘why are they crediting me when I didn’t work on it?’ So we decided that the way to handle it would be to credit people as ‘Original Programmer’, ‘Original so-and-so’. Listing their titles like that seemed best.”

Okamura then confirmed that Metal Gear Solid Delta won’t start with the line ‘A Hideo Kojima Game’ like the original did, instead replacing it with ‘Based on Metal Gear Solid 3‘ instead since Kojima hasn’t directed the remake himself. Okamura went on to cite prior examples of Metal Gear titles that were directed by himself, not by Kojima, that also did not open with the aforementioned line, such as Portable Ops. 

“You might notice that a lot of Metal Gear titles start with the line, ‘A Hideo Kojima Game’,” Okamura said. “But in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, you’ll see it says ‘Based on Metal Gear Solid 3‘ instead. I just want to take a moment to make sure everyone understands why that is. It’s always been the case that games Mr. Kojima didn’t personally direct don’t have ‘A Hideo Kojima Game’. So, for instance, I directed a few Metal Gear titles, like Portable Ops or the Digital Graphic Novel, so neither of those open with that line. The same with Ghost Babel, which was handled by another producer. So, for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, we decided that it just made sense to follow that precedent.”

In the same video, Okamura also discussed whether or not Metal Gear Solid Delta is going to be too faithful of a remake for its own good, and confirmed that the game is now fully playable from start to finish behind-the-scenes.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It will be playable at TGS later this month.