Diamond Dogs



The Diamond Dogs is a group for which Big Boss possesses an emblem on his uniform, in "classified" artwork unveiled online by Kojima Productions. The artwork was used to promote the recruitment of engineers to help develop the next canonical game in the Metal Gear series, which was later revealed to be Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The artwork in question depicts Big Boss accompanied by a dog, presumably either a foxhound or a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Due to the angle of the artwork, only the word "Dogs" is legible, on the right side of Big Boss's uniform. However, Hideo Kojima tweeted a full image of the logo, revealing the entire name.

The name "Diamond Dogs" is possibly a reference to a David Bowie song, of which two references have previously been made in the series: specifically Zero adopting the name of "Major Tom" during the Virtuous Mission, and Para-Medic asking whether Naked Snake had seen the movie My Mother Is a Teenage Spider Queen from Mars (referring to his band "The Spiders from Mars"). It might also be a reference to blood diamonds, which are diamonds that are mined and sold in countries where a major conflict, whether it be an insurgency, an invading army's war effort, or a tyrant, in hotspots, usually within Africa. Both potential origins of the name are acknowledged in a recent issue of PSM3 magazine, which also speculated that the setting of the next Metal Gear game will take place in Angola (alluded to in a secret conversation after the second ending of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker) and that the conflict will relate to the location of the world's biggest diamond mines.



During the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary segment of Konami's pre-E3 show, the Diamond Dogs image popped up, implying that it would have some ties to the 25th Anniversary.

The Diamond Dogs logo was on Big Boss's right shoulder (replacing the FOX logo) while the Militaires Sans Frontières logo was on his left shoulder, hinting that the Diamond Dogs were a branch within MSF.



On January 30, Kojima tweeted that he had an iPhone case that bore the logo of Diamond Dogs. He also stated in the same tweet that it wasn't for sale. Later, he stated that he started using it as his actual case.

Outside of the classified artwork on the GDC 2012 site, the Diamond Dogs' connection to Ground Zeroes, as well as specifically what the group was, has not been revealed. It was eventually shown in the GDC 2013 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain nearing the end, as well as a voice (implied to be Miller's) mentioning that they found their new home, hinting that Diamond Dogs was a replacement for MSF. However, it is not known whether the Diamond Dogs were formed prior to or after Big Boss's nine-year coma.