Hideo Kojima Says Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain “Will Require Much More Time” Than Ground Zeroes

When Konami finally revealed a Spring 2014 release date for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, it finally put to rest any questions of whether Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain would be released together.

To get some reasoning behind exactly how they came to this decision of splitting the games up, Famitsu magazine (via Siliconera) interviewed Hideo Kojima:

If I were to put it in Hollywood movie terms, the prologue – that is Ground Zeroes – would be similar to the first 10 – 15 minutes that are meant to ‘captivate’ [the audience]. At first, something will happen, then the title will appear like ‘bam!’ and then nine years later, a big event will be the start [of MGS V]. That’s how the story will be connected.

With The Phantom Pain taking place “in an immense open world map,” and Ground Zeroes in a “smaller open world,” he went further in to doing separate releases:

[…] The Phantom Pain has enormous volume, so it will require much more time. So, together with the marketing staff, we consulted ‘what ifs’ and such, and came to the decision of allowing fans to at least play the prologue, ahead of time. We want to offer it for as cheap as possible, so at first we thought about making it as a download only; however, after thinking about people around the world, and how some places don’t have the best connectivity, we’re preparing a physical version.

Kojima also admitted that “it would’ve actually been better to release [The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes] all at once,” but it now seems likely that The Phantom Pain “will be coming out around the time the PlayStation 4 becomes more spread out.”

When do you think we’ll see Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain? Let us know in the comments below.

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