14 DAY TRIAL // Metal Gear Solid creator and legendary games designer Hideo Kojima has explained why he chose the solution of splitting Metal Gear Solid 5 into two distinct games – Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, respectively – and how it will delight fans in the end.
Metal Gear Solid games have delighted tens of millions of fans from around the world with their great gameplay and ambitious story focusing on mercenary groups and other different ideas.
For the next installment in the series, Hideo Kojima and Konami decided to split the release into two core parts: Ground Zeroes, which is a sort of prologue in terms of story, and The Phantom Pain, which is the actual new experience.
According to Kojima, who talked with Kotaku, Ground Zeroes was initially set to appear right after the Peace Walker entry on the PSP, but certain things prevented such a speedy launch.
"Honestly, I really wanted to release Ground Zeroes right after Peace Walker," Kojima said. "Whether on PSP or PS3. But then we had development issues, some delays with Metal Gear Rising as well. And then we learned about next generation coming, so it ended up being the way it is now."
Kojima would have liked to release Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain together, but admitted that it's a really ambitious project and, in order for fans to get a new taste of the Metal Gear Solid experience, he decided to ship the prologue first.
"Of course it would be ideal to release Ground Zeroes and the main part of the game all together," Kojima said. "But at the same time given that this week we have the next generation of game consoles coming out, a lot of the fans wanted to play something sooner.
"And given that the main game is a rather big game and still in development, it will take a little bit more time to get it out. We decided to listen to the fans and put at least the prologue out there so people will get the experience."
Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is set to launch this spring for PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, and Xbox One.