Despite news that Konami will observe the success of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and decide whether to release Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in either 2014 or 2015, director and series creator Hideo Kojima has indicated in an interview with Famitsu that the game will require much more time before it’s complete.
“Prior to the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V, last year, we showed a Fox Engine implementation video. 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. 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.”
This comes off of Kojima revealing that though some portions of the game were “100 percent completed”, other components required a lot more time. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is currently set to release in early 2014 for Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and Xbox 360. Will it serve as the catalyst for a quicker MGS5 release? We’ll have to wait and see.