Konami Reveals New Metal Gear Solid Title, Franchise Plans

It's been four years since the Metal Gear Solid saga came to its dramatic conclusion in Guns of the Patriots.  While Metal Gear Rising: Revengance is just around the corner (February, people!) fans have been asking, nay, begging for details about Metal Gear Solid 5 and where it falls into the overall universe Hideo Kojima and his development team created.  This morning, that question along with several others were finally answered.

Announced at roughly 1am EST, Konami showed off Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes for the first time to the world.  Described as an open-world stealth title, the game was shown running on the Kojima Productions internal Fox engine.  Rather than give us a trailer and not much else a brief, in-game scripted demo was shown.

As described by Gamespot:

"The scene starts in a remote military base with heavy rain. The camera is following a shadowy figure in a business suit and hat accompanied by a number of well-armed soldiers and guard dogs as he converses with a little boy in a cage. He throws a portable music player after some dialogue and the boy proceeded to use it. The rest of the scene was playing "Here's To You" from the film "Sacco e Vanzetti" (also on Metal Gear Solid 4) as the man in a coat rides off to an airfield before taking off on a helicopter to an undisclosed location. Before erasing the "XOF" emblem off of the helicopter, he took out his hat and speaks about what transpired in very vague words. His face and head was all burned-up and scarred with no hair; at this point in time, we have no idea who he is. He proceeded to toss away all a stash of mini "XOF" emblems as he flew off with the rest of the soldiers.

[. . . . .]

Series creator Hideo Kojima then took centrestage and showed off the title's gameplay for a few minutes. We see Snake do what he does best: go in a prone state and sneak around (no Octocam this time; just old-fashioned crawling and hiding), as well as going into aiming mode in third person shooting a nearby guard at a security post. We should also mention that the demo gave out a sandbox open-world vibe; the military base itself felt expansive and huge, and Snake can summon a helicopter to bring him around as well as drive a jeep to go from point A to B. Kojima did state that he wishes to add a new spin to the stealth genre; even when you're discovered, you can use all the means and tools to escape rather than see a "game over" screen."
Sounds interesting, huh?  Let me point out some things that seem (almost) certain.

• Given hits in the demo related to Peace Walker, the Militaires Sans Frontières logo on his shoulder and an outline of an eye patch underneath that NVG getup, it is more than fair to suggest the Snake we will be playing as is none other than Big Boss, not Solid Snake.  However, during the demo he is referred to as Snake.

• In a Famitsu article about the event, scripted lines made reference to Paz, "soldiers who can't go home" and Mother Base, indicating that the game takes place sometime between Peace Walker and the original Metal Gear.

• One of the voices that could be heard in the demo belongs to Tomokazu Sugita, the Japanese voice actor for Master Miller in Peace Walker.

• Kojima Productions is targeting a Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 release for the title.  Release date is unknown.

• It was specifically mentioned that the Fox engine is capable of meeting next-gen development needs.  Kojima Productions is currently working on next-gen stuff, possibly indicating that Grounds Zeroes may well be a transitional title for the next generation of console.

Though there is an embargo currently on any footage of the game at all there is a single image available at the game's website which gives an in-engine glimpse of Snake in action.  Take a look:

Also, keep in mind: this Saturday, Hideo Kojima and crew will be holding a Metal Gear retrospective panel at PAX Prime.  I think it's fair to suggest that we might see a bit more about the title there.  Stay tuned for our coverage of the event.

This wasn't the only piece of news announced at the anniversary event.  Konami, it its infinite wisdom, is trying to reignite work on a Metal Gear movie.  Though a release date and staff assignments such as writer and director have yet to be announced the attendees were told that Avi Arad would be producing the film.  Arad has the producer claim for almost every single Marvel film since the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man film and also has his name attached to the Uncharted and Mass Effect films currently in development hell.  Arad clearly sees the potential of what a Metal Gear film could be like in a cinematic sense but given his current track record with video game film adaptations I don't see this happening anytime soon.

Other than the movie, Konami did take the time to announce another Metal Gear game: Social Ops.  Yes, Metal Gear Solid Social Ops is exactly what you think it is: a portable Metal Gear title bound for Japan's GREE social networking service.  The game is under development on, interestingly, the Unity engine.  The game seems to be a port or update to Peace Walker but don't get too excited.  I don't see this one coming to Western shores (or leaving Japan for that matter) anytime soon, if at all.

So, any thoughts on your minds?

[Sources: Gamespot, Neogaf]