Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain to be separate games

At the recent GDC panel, Hideo Kojima has revealed that Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are going to be different games. So far, Ground Zeroes has been set for a 2013 release date and The Phantom Pain will be coming out in the future. The curious thing, however, is that despite the later release date, The Phantom Pain is listed under PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for its platforms, and there is no mention of a next-gen release for the game. However, with one of the key features of the Fox Engine being its scalability, the game may make the transition to next-gen relatively easily.

The distribution model for the games is as of yet unconfirmed

Konami had released a trailer for Metal Gear Solid V last month during PAX. From the trailer, we can see that the events of Ground Zeroes prologue for The Phantom Pain. This ties in well with the Metal Gear Solid tradition of the second and third games of being divided into two acts – a small prologue act and a bigger main act. Big Boss has been in a coma for quite some time and must come to grips with losing his arm and escaping the medical institute where he is being held.

The trailer shows glimpses of what happened since Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The main base of the Militaires Sans Frontières (Soldiers Without Borders), Mother Base, has been attacked and Miller and Big Boss have been injured. The trailer shows both of them being revived in a hospital.

Along with this good news, we also have some bad news. David Hayter has revealed over Twitter that he will not be reprising his iconic role as Snake. This comes as strange news, as Hayter has been the voice of Snake – Solid as well as Naked – ever since the characters have had voices. It is currently unknown who will give voice to the protagonist for the English version of Metal Gear Solid V.

Metal Gear Solid V will bridge the timeline between Peace Walker and Metal Gear. The game may very well show how Big Boss creates Foxhound as well as his stronghold – Outer Heaven.

The demo showcased at GDC was running on a PC, but Konami has confirmed that it will be released for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. A PC version is currently unconfirmed and the company hasn’t said anything about a next-gen console version.