These days, it’s very hard to keep anything secret about video games. Their existence, their developers, their release dates, everything is made public by job listings, patent and trademark filings, ratings board submissions, and retailers.
That happened over the last one week, as a bunch of retailers began to put the release date for Kojima’s highly anticipated fifth entry in the Metal Gear Solid saga, The Phantom Pain, as February 24, leading to an outbreak of mass hysteria and hype, as fans thought they would be getting to play this very anticipated game very soon- much sooner than they would have thought, in fact.
Well, it turns out the release date was wrong- the game is, in fact, not releasing on February 24, Konami has confirmed, and they haven’t given us an official release date to replace the wrong one either.
“When I woke up this morning I certainly didn’t want to come in and smash people’s dreams. That’s not why I’m here. But I’m also trying to fulfill my duty (heh) of being honest and as straightforward as possible with fans,” Konami’s ToraShiro said.
“Wish they hadn’t posted a date (especially a wrong date), but here we are. If anything I hope people realize that they should be wary when a retailer posts an unverified date unless corroborated by a publisher.”
Well… okay, then. Guess it’s back to the waiting game.