Peace Walker Is Actually Metal Gear Solid 5

It's hard creating a videogame series that goes on for more than three installments and not get thoroughly entangled in problems with game numbers, spinoff labeling and crossover appearances.

Thankfully, game creators have it all figured out and are ready to tell fans about what game is part of the official canon and should be seen as numbered and which experience is just a side show that might get overlooked in the future.

Bungie has recently said that Reach, the title it will release this year, is not actually Halo 4. And now it seems that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, set to arrive on the PlayStation Portable, could easily be remembered as Metal Gear Solid 5.

Hideo Kojima, who is the leading creator behind the Metal Gear Solid series, told the Official United Kingdom PlayStation Magazine that “Since it is on PSP, I did not officially number it. But the game design, story, number of staff and budget - you can say that this is a big project. It would've been number 5. It's not a side story or a spin-off. It's not like Portable Ops or Acid. I am deeply involved and this is the next Metal Gear.”

Kojima also confessed to working hard on Peace Walker, offering the ideas and the names behind its most innovative mechanisms, like the Co-Op Ring and the Love Box. Normally, Hideo Kojima took charge of the team who created the home console version of Metal Gear Solid titles, while portable spinoffs were handled by a different development outfit.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is set to take place in Costa Rica in 1974, just as the country is assaulted by an unknown force and Naked Snake and his team, Militaires Sans Frontieres, is called in to take care of the threat. The game will emphasize cooperative play via the PSP local connection.