The Phantom Pain

The Phantom Pain is a game that was revealed during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards on December 7, 2012. Although the beginning of the trailer mentioned that the game was being developed by a Swedish company called Moby Dick Studio, evidence suggested that it was actually made by Kojima Productions to promote a game related to either the Metal Gear series or Project Ogre; more specifically, Metal Gear Solid 5. Many sources speculated a connection to Metal Gear. The trailer was re-released on December 21, 2012, with an alternate music track, and added sound effects. The trailer itself remains unchanged, however. On March 27, 2013, Hideo Kojima officially confirmed that The Phantom Pain was indeed a Metal Gear game titled Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain during GDC 2013.



Trailer summary
A doctor talks to a patient, urging him to relax. He continues, stating there is plenty of time and he needs to tell him something. A car crash is shown, before returning to the doctor, informing his patient that he has been in a coma for "quite some time." The Union Jack is seen in the background, implying this facility is in, or at least owned by, Great Britain. The patient sees white petals floating in front of him and when he reaches of them, discovers his left arm has been replaced with a prosthetic. A fellow patient, whom face is bandaged, helps him up. The patient tries to move, but cannot stand, instead being forced to crawl. The bandaged soldier then escorts him through the halls of the hospital, only to stop when he notices a mysterious figure beyond the doorway. Suddenly, the hallway glows orange as dark smoke appears above them. It then cuts to the hospital halls during the night. The patient has regained his ability to walk, but the pair see lights from both outside and in the halls, forcing them to hide. Soldiers raid the hospital, gunning down patients, as a fire breaks out. A burning man is briefly seen along with a fiery apparition resembling a unicorn. The patient then runs out of the doomed hospital only to find a helicopter pinning him down. A demonic-looking blue whale appears from the sky and consumes the chopper. The patient is then shown lying down, a soldier kicking him over and a figure looms over them. Throughout the trailer, narrations, implied to be the patient's, question where he is, why he can't move his body, and whether he's in a dream. The patient also speculates that he might be in Hell, and states repeatedly to "open his eyes." Finally, a woman is heard stating "V has come to."

Kojima Productions game
As noted above, before it was officially confirmed to be accurate, there was evidence that suggested that the trailer was actually meant to be a promotion by Kojima Productions for a future game, specifically Metal Gear Solid 5:


 * The amputated character's arm was introduced with him reaching for white petals, mirroring sequences in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
 * The amputated character resembled Big Boss/Solid Snake.
 * The soldier who was helping the main character had similar sneaking animations to those seen in the Metal Gear series and also had facial bandages, linking him to the disfigured character who appeared in the Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer.
 * The figure in the elevator near the beginning was wearing a gas mask, similar to Psycho Mantis. This character seemed to have the ability to levitate as well, also seen in Mantis. The fire seen throughout the trailer might also be a nod to his childhood.
 * The soldiers hunting down the main characters wore nearly identical outfits to the XOF soldiers from the Ground Zeroes trailer.
 * The soldiers all carried modified Ruger MP9s, with a Skorpion vz. 61 folding stock, and underbarrel mounted flashlights, the same firearms carried by the XOF operatives from the Ground Zeroes trailer.
 * The first figure in the fire was seen wearing the outfit Snake wore in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and the Ground Zeroes trailer.
 * The second figure in the fire bears a large resemblance in outline and leggings to Colonel Volgin.
 * The negative space of the title described "Metal Gear Solid V."
 * The developer, Moby Dick Studio, was apparently started two weeks prior to the trailer's release.
 * The supposed head of the development company was Joakim Mogren. "Joakim" is an anagram of "Kojima." Also, the word "ogre" appears in the middle four letters of "Mogren."
 * The phrase "From FOX, two phantoms were born" was used in the trailer of Ground Zeroes.
 * In June 2012, Kojima tweeted that their motion capture team were "rehearsing the scene getting out of the up-side-downed car resulted from the car accident" with pictures of the team rehearsing. The Phantom Pain trailer has a car accident in it.
 * On David Hayter's Twitter account, Hayter tweeted "'@aganej2: @DavidBHayter so what was your take on The Phantom Pain trailer?' It made my arm hurt", hinting that Hayter was going to play a part in the supposed game. This was followed by another tweet that said, "@HypeGenerator Well in fact, I don't believe I 'confirmed' anything... #PP=MGV?"
 * Video game journalist Alex Rubens posted a photo of Kyle Cooper wearing a T-shirt for The Phantom Pain. Rubens also commented that other Konami staff in the VIP section were wearing The Phantom Pain shirts and Kojima was seen mingling with the team.
 * Online store PlayAsia listed Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain among their products. The title was accompanied by a picture of Ground Zeroes. This pointed in the direction that Metal Gear Solid 5, Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain were the same game.
 * On March 12, 2013, video game journalist Geoff Keighley tweeted that he was headed off for the GDC 2013 session to interview Joakim Mogren, and claimed that it would be "interesting." A day later, Kojima made a twitlonger post revealing that he was going to attend GDC 2013 to not only present a Fox Engine demo, but to make an announcement as well. During said interview, which was shown on the March 14, 2013 episode of GameTrailers TV, the supposed Mogren (who had a large amount of bandages on his face due to an "accident") stated that a new trailer will be revealed at GDC 2013. Later in the interview, Mogren showed several new screenshots and concept art of the game, in which the Fox Engine logo could clearly be seen. When questioned about this, Mogran expressed shock and the interview abruptly ended.
 * During a Q&A session on his trip to Dubai, Kojima was asked about The Phantom Pain. Kojima laughed and said that while he saw the resemblance, it was being made by Moby Dick Studio and that he had nothing to do with it. He also said he was working on Ground Zeroes and "a few other titles" in which he was involved in the script writing and the game design. In a later interview, however, he mentioned that he preferred decieving the audience regarding promotional spots for upcoming games, and was disappointed with how Hollywood ended up showing stuff that was predictable to audiences, with the timing occurring around the same time as the above mentioned GameTrailers TV interview.
 * Kojima later tweeted a picture of his meal while looking at a laptop, during a meeting discussing how to handle the GDC presentation. A closer inspection of the laptop screen revealed that he was visiting GS Inside Games's article on the GameTrailers TV interview.
 * On March 21, Kojima tweeted a screencap of a 5-minute trailer he was working on for the GDC showing of Ground Zeroes. The file name, "TPP_GDC2013_720p_ESRB", hinted at a connection between it and Ground Zeroes.

Etymology
The name of the game, The Phantom Pain, refers to a condition regarding the feeling of detachment regarding amputated or otherwise lost limbs/organs.

Videos
