Metal Gear Online

Metal Gear Online, commonly abbreviated MGO is an online multiplayer spinoff of the Metal Gear series. The game was officially unveiled in Kojima Productions' 20th Anniversary Part of the Metal Gear series. While Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops featured optional online game modes that were both dubbed Metal Gear Online, this incarnation of the online game was initially announced as a separate stand-alone product based on the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots gameplay and setting, but has since been announced as part of MGS4.

On the Japanese Metal Gear Online Teaser Site, a section under WHY play MGO? shows that "Even during game playing it is possible to start directly from PS3. Of course, you can peruse even from the personal computer." This insists that MGO might also be released on PC, although nothing has been verified.

Gameplay
The game will feature 16-player online battles. Players can upgrade skills that their character can use such as hacking, CQC mastery, enhanced lock-on, and more, all of which can be leveled up. The player can keep tabs on allies and enemies with nanomachines.

Players will have the ability to "hack" another player's character to steal information from their nanomachines, such as the locations of his/her allies. This is how the SOP system from Metal Gear Solid 4 is going to be implemented as a gameplay feature in MGO.

New information has revealed that there will be 70+ weapon/attachment combinations in MGS4, all of which may or may not be carried over into Metal Gear Online.

Beta testing
An online beta test was released exclusively in Japan, which occurred from August 20, 2007 through September 3, 2007. The beta was only open to 3,000 players. In addition to announcing a ship date and hardware bundle for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, SCEA revealed that a beta for the game's online component will happen before the June release. MGS4 will come with a "starter pack" that will be expanded upon with extra content.

In North America, the multiplayer beta test for Metal Gear Online was made available to download on April 16th. The beta test was originally scheduled to begin on April 21st and end on May 6th, but high levels of server traffic has forced Konami to delay the start of the beta until the servers are stabilized. Konami has stated that a new start date will be announced and that the end date would be May 11th. The beta is accessed by pre-ordering the game in North America. The beta will last for approximately 2 weeks.

On April 11th 2008, Konami announced an open Metal Gear Online beta for Europe and will be available for download from April 17 and will be entirely open to everyone who downloads it until May 6.

Kotaku has noted the difficulty in signing up with the beta. Their primary complaint is with Konami forcing the user to signup for a KONAMI ID on their website as well as a GAME ID for the actual Metal Gear Online game instead of using the standard PlayStation Network ID used on most other online games.

On April 21, the open beta was launched in Japan and Europe. Due to mass appeal, many gamers applied to participate in the beta, but the servers were met with severe user traffic within the opening minutes, resulting in a system wide crash. The beta therefore, has been postponed in Japan and Europe as well as the launch of the North America beta so Konami can fix and stabilize the servers. According to the Metal Gear Online teaser website, the beta is now aimed to begin at midnight (24:00) on the 25th April, with a comment mentioning a possible further delay, if the solution hasn't then been resolved. Konami has also set the new beta test closure date on May 11, 2008.

Distribution
In Session 058 of 'The Kojima Report' with Ryan Payton, Payton confirmed there will be a Starter Pack included with MGS4 with a magazine.

Subsistence
The game is made up primarily of games in which players compete against each other for points. the following modes are featured:

Sneaking Missions A "one vs many" battle between a player who is controlling Snake against several other players acting as Guards. Snake must steal a Microfilm that is being guarded by the other players, and deliver it to one of the two goals.

Capture Missions Two Teams battle to capture the Kerotan Frogs.

Death Match Free for all death match. Whoever has the most points at the end of the round wins.

Rescue Mission Red Team has to protect the Frog until time runs out. Blue Team has to bring the frog to their goal.

Team Death Match Each unit represents different groups from within the Snake Eater story. The player who gets the highest score in the previous round gets to play as the leader of that group i.e. if your group is the Ocelot Unit you get to play as Major Ocelot.

Portable Ops
In the single player game, players will be able to recruit soldiers into their unit as part of the story. These soldiers will then be able to be used in the online portion of the game. However characters that die in the multiplayer game die permanently and can not be used in single player. Because of this you can surrender a match to save the rest of your unit.