Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (メタルギアソリッドグラウンドゼロ) is the upcoming canonical installment in the Metal Gear series. Being developed by Kojima Productions, Ground Zeroes is running on the Fox Engine and will be published by Konami. After taking on more of a background role for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Hideo Kojima will be stepping up to the forefront again by writing, directing and doing the game design for Ground Zeroes, as well as producing it. Kojima confirmed that the game will launch on current-gen systems. It has been said that the game will go multiplatform, and is currently in development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. However, job listings for the game suggest that Ground Zeroes would be developed for the PC as well. Big Boss will be the protagonist of Ground Zeroes. According to Kojima, Ground Zeroes is a prologue to "Metal Gear Solid 5."

History
In October 2011, a Fox Engine demo was shown during a lecture held by Kojima at the University of Southern California.

On November 21, 2011, in an interview with PlayStation Official Magazine about the next Metal Gear Solid, Kojima said "I think we'll probably have to make it at some point, but what that will be, we have no idea."

In December 2011, Kojima dropped more hints about his new game:

He stated "For those of you desire for authentic stealth MGS, I want you to patiently wait for the sequel coming in future." At the time he would only say that his new game will be running on Fox Engine and would support Transfarring, be multiplatform and be designed with a global audience in mind.

"The kind of game I'm making is some game that has a very wide entrance, a very open entrance," "Rather than making something very cinematic, [I plan to] make something very free." Kojima told CNN of his new game. He went on to describe the game as set in an open world, in which players are free to explore. Kojima expects players to be able to find content even after 100 hours.

On February 21, 2012, a site owned by Kojima Productions was uploaded promoting a new Metal Gear game. The only thing that was known was that it involves Big Boss, and that Kojima Productions was recruiting "skillful engineers, artists, and game creators" at the Game Developers Conference pavillion between March 6th and March 9th for "the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for high-end consoles and PC." In addition, the entry to the site had an "Uncle Sam"-style poster of Big Boss. No official title for the game was mentioned. The site itself contained a "classified" manilla folder which contained artwork of Big Boss wearing a poncho/cape with a Sneaking Suit, only with a new emblem replacing the Militaires Sans Frontières logo, as well as a hound accompanying him.

Kojima also posted a larger version of the "Diamond Dogs" emblem on his Twitter account. The Development Without Borders website was eventually taken down, due to the recruitment process at GDC pavillion ending at that point.

On March 19, 2012, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the "Art of Video Games" exhibit was held for the induction of the Metal Gear series after selling more than 31 millions units. There, Kojima stated that he couldn’t say too much about his new game, but “this year, next year, I am working on something that I think will become the shining moment” for his career and the Metal Gear series. He also said that he’ll be 50 next year and that he wants to create that moment now. Kojima also stated "The game I'm working on right now is dealing with quite a few issues that are pretty delicate and taboo." Kojima added "I'm not sure if they'll end up being in the final product or not, but that's something that I want to continue to strive for" and it's his goal to "bring those real-life issues to the forefront," but he has to temper that with making the game fun to play. He said that as a creator who constantly sees the flaws in his own work after it's finished, he always feels that "what I'm making right now, in my mind, is the best -- though I can't really talk about that right now." Kojima also mentioned visiting a military base in San Diego to test a shooting simulator, but again mentioned that he couldn't talk about the trip in detail.

During the pre-E3 show on June 1, 2012, the Diamond Dogs logo that was shown by Kojima and made an appearance in the earlier CDC recruitment site was shown near the end of the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary segment of the show, implying that the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary would have some involvement in the development of the game.

On June 8, 2012, in an interview with CVG, Kojima talked about his visionaries on his next game:

There are a lot of things actually, a lot of issues that I want to address. The Metal Gear saga looked at certain issues, and the reason I kept making sequels is that it allowed me to explore them. I'm going to start a new series now focused on new issues, probably something a little different from what Metal Gear addressed, a different set of issues. Of course I'm turning 50 now, and I think if I'm going to approach new topics it might be something more on a human level, something like the concept of love or rearing a family, things of that nature. I'm getting old!

As a game designer, up to this point games have evolved in such a way that because of technical limitations, a lot of rules and artificial limitations have to be put in. Like in a card game or chess, the rules need to be there. But now it's evolved to the point where you can realise almost anything in a game world since it's evolved so far. My perspective has changed from a role of creating rules, to one of creating situations and putting people in those situations. It's a different approach to game design and there's a lot of risk involved with that, but that's what I'm trying to accomplish now, to rise to the challenge and create a new type of game based on a new method of game design. It's risky but I feel there's a huge reward for doing it, and in the mean time you can enjoy games like Metal Gear Rising, The Last of Us and look forward to my next game.

On July 11, 2012, Kojima told Famitsu magazine that the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary announcement would occur on August 30, citing the project as something that "connects people."

On August 21, 2012, Eric Bossick, a Konami motion capture actor working on the game revealed that the upcoming Metal Gear Solid could be released as early as summer 2013. He said that he was working on the game which is scheduled for next year:

"My past motion capture session was for an upcoming Metal Gear game, I will be back with Kojima again in the fall, and maybe other sessions. This title is a long way off. I can 100% say my voice will not be involved in this. I don't even know what the title is, they are all very secretive and sometimes even the scenes I act out I don't even know the full story, because they want to keep it secret. I suppose it is fine to mention I am working on it, everybody knows Kojima is making something now, and I posted the photo on my page here with him. The only thing is that I can't ever answer any questions about it or talk about, not for sometime."

On August 30, 2012, A promotional mirrored poster was released by Metal Gear 25th Anniversary site.

Also a trailer of Ground Zeroes (which actually is the opening demo of the game) was shown during the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary, demonstrating Fox Engine's abilities. Official title of the game was revealed and Big Boss confirmed to be the protagonist. The story of this game was revealed to be related to the post-Peace Walker Incident era. The demo was running on a PC and played using an Xbox 360 controller. While the game and engine are designed with both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in mind, Kojima stated the engine will cater to next-gen consoles. Kojima talked a bit about the game while also showing footage: He mentioned in particular that he intends to make a twist to the stealth genre, namely that even if caught, the player can use all the resources at their disposal to escape rather than automatically getting a game over.

On August 31, 2012, Kojima tweeted "Everyone in America, we will meet in Seattle. I’m bringing FOX to PAX," Kojima also tweeted "FOX and XOF," with a promotional image.

There were plans to have PAX stream the event, but were cancelled for reasons that could only be concluded to be from "sensitive subjects." Nonetheless, IGN was going to upload the video, and Kojima also revealed that the game will actually act as a prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5.

Kojima called the game "a beginning" rather than an end for the series.

Social media manager Sid Shuman confirmed that Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes will be multiplatform in a post on Official PlayStation Blog.

It was also confirmed that Ground Zeroes will feature a massive open world for players to interact with, as well as steal vehicles at various points. Snake will have access to a helicopter to travel to different missions, and he’ll even be able to listen to some tunes, the demo using the Richard Wagner song "Ride of the Valkyries" by default. "You can use a flare to call in a helicopter at any time," Kojima said. According to Kojima, the music that plays in the helicopter is customizable. That said, Kojima mentioned that louder music will give up the player's location a lot easier. Kojima also stated that there was a lot more to the demo than what was shown, but they had to leave nearly immediately after they started the gameplay because of time constraints.

At PAX Prime, Kojima talked about Fox Engine:

“The thing is, once we get the Fox Engine moving as we do now. You can make an FPS, you can make an Uncharted, etc. But what I wanted to do is make an open-world game, and that’s what I’m doing now.”"A Silent Hill, possibly," he added. This is a "completely open world," Kojima said. "This is not a tech demo, it's a real game running on the Fox Engine," Kojima assured.

Speaking in light of Ground Zeroes ' North American debut at PAX Prime, Kojima expressed his frustration at people constantly asking him what Project Ogre is. He tweeted the following:

“While I am happy to know people liked ‘MGS Ground Zeroes,’ I’m sick & tired of people keep asking me like ‘is that project Ogre?’ here in Seattle everyday. Project Ogre is what the project that Ogre appears in. Ogre does not appear in ‘MGS Ground Zeroes’ trailer."

Kojima also stated “One thing I want to make clear is that Ground Zeroes is something I’m making myself. I want to make it clear that Snake is outlet that he's taking a hands-on role in the development of the game. "Snake's back, but I’m also back," and "I’m putting all my effort into that." said Kojima. He also added that he is making a different title for next-gen consoles.

Regarding the title of the game, there was some initial debate regarding whether it was to be "Ground Zero" or "Ground Zeroes." Kojima later confirmed that the latter was indeed the actual title in a Twitter post, stating the meaning behind the title was that there "wasn't only one hypocenter."

Kojima attempted to clear up a confusion on Twitter, writing: "I'm seeing a lot of tweets about how when Snake takes off his goggles, he's old-looking because of his gray hairs. That, however, is just the backlighting making them look gray." Kojima also posted an image of Big Boss without night vision goggles.

Ground Zeroes will include loading screens as players sneak about its open world map. Kojima divulged the information to Eurogamer after the game's unveiling. The game will also offer a day and night cycle, something that will boost replayability, Kojima added. Players will see differences throughout the world depending on the time of day, such as changes in enemy troop patterns.

Ground Zeroes will feature many open worlds, with no loading screens to slow players down. Kojima Productions explained at the Tokyo Game Show that loading for this title will always be done in the background, except for instances when you travel by helicopter. The helicopter transport will be used to travel between open world areas, but once in an area, there would be no loading. Kojima Productions also explained that the area featured in the first trailer for the game is one of the small open areas of the game and there are bigger ones to come.

On September 25, 2012, in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Kojima said that release date of Ground Zeroes is still unclear since one wants to have an open-world concept and no linear structure that would move forward faster. Kojima further added that he will announce the release date only when the game is completely done. "I'm not sure yet when the game will be released; we could make a linear game much more easily, but I wanted to set this game in an open world. I don't think you'll be waiting too long, but we're not going to release it until it's ready.", Kojima stated.

On September 27, in the Eurogamer Expo interview, Kojima stated that "I don’t think I could ever create a Snake who was much younger than myself. So at some point, say we wanted to bring out a new Metal Gear that was a JRPG with Snake in his teens or something like that, I don’t think that’s something i could really do, so I’d have to give it to our younger staff. As you’ve seen, Ground Zeroes will feature Snake who is old."

Ground Zeroes was shown at EG Expo 2012, and Kojima himself came on stage to show a demo that was close to the one they showed at TGS. Kojima has said that the open world nature of Ground Zeroes has taken a toll on the visuals, but the lighting has not been impacted. In addition, he also confirmed that the Mother Base gameplay mechanic will return in Ground Zeroes, and also implied that it will also have a new interactive element. Snake will have a home base in the open world that can be fortified and managed, and Kojima Productions is looking at the option for players to manage bases from smartphones. Changes made will be updated in the core game, and players will be able to walk around the base in realtime, upgrade it and more. Also back for the game is weapon R&D from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. “The concept of developing weapons at your base is a very cool idea, and something that could be popular. It’s something we’ve been thinking of.”, Kojima said.