Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has “enormous volume,” and as such, will take some time to complete. Creator Hideo Kojima has also explained why the game will take so long, and why he chose to split the title into both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain segments.
Speaking with Famitsu, Kojima explained why he’s kicking things off with a Ground Zeroes prologue, “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 Metal Gear Solid V]. That’s how the story will be connected. As far as the game itself goes, The Phantom Pain will take place in an immense open world map, while Ground Zeroes takes place in a smaller open world.
“It would’ve actually been better to release it all at once, but by the way things are going, it appears likely that Phantom Pain will be coming out around the time the PlayStation 4 becomes more spread out. That means we would’ve had to make people wait a while longer.”
The sheer scale of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain means that fans will be kept waiting for some time. Kojima is keen to keep things from stagnating by drip-feeding announcements and tiding the public over with Ground Zeroes.
He then explained the process, “Prior to the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V, last year, we showed a Fox Engine implementation video. Then, we also showed the Fox Engine in a presentation video at GDC 2013. Since we revealed information on a regular basis, there were many who believed that Metal Gear Solid V was already complete, and there were many voices from fans saying ‘we want to play it soon’.
“However, 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.”
