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 an 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. This game is an interquel set between the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and "Metal Gear Solid 5." Big Boss will be the protagonist of Ground Zeroes.

Characters

 * Big Boss
 * Kazuhira Miller
 * Chico
 * Paz Ortega Andrade

Groups and organizations

 * FOX
 * Militaires Sans Frontières
 * Diamond Dogs
 * XOF
 * Cipher

Gameplay
Ground Zeroes has 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. 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 "Ride of the Valkyries" by default. Player can use a flare to call in a helicopter at any time. The music that plays in the helicopter is customizable, louder music will give up the player's location a lot easier. Ground Zeroes will include loading screens as players sneak about its open world map. The game will also offer a day and night cycle, something that will boost replayability. 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. Loading for this title will always be done in the background, except for instances when traveling by helicopter. The helicopter transport will be used to travel between open world areas, but once in an area, there would be no loading. 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. The open world nature of Ground Zeroes has taken a toll on the visuals, but the lighting has not been impacted. The Mother Base gameplay mechanic will return in Ground Zeroes, and 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 there would be 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. Also the concept of developing weapons at Mother Base will be used in Ground Zeroes.

Development
In Late 2011, Kojima announced that the new Metal Gear is on its way. He said 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. Kojima went on to describe the game as set in an open world rather than being cinematic, in which players are free to explore. He expects players to be able to find content even after 100 hours.

On February 21, 2012, a site named Development Without Borders owned by Kojima Productions was uploaded promoting a new MGS. Kojima Productions was recruiting staff at the Game Developers Conference pavillion between March 6th and March 9th including "Project engineers for the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for high-end consoles and PC", "Engineers to help develop next-gen engine technology for use with the FOX Engine" and "Kojima Productions Brand Manager".

On March 19, 2012, 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.

A trailer of Ground Zeroes (which is actually the opening cutscene of the game) plus a short time gameplay was shown at the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary, demonstrating Fox Engine's abilities. The demo was running on a high-end 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. Also two promotional posters were released on the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary site.

At PAX Prime 2012, Kojima talked about his new projects:

“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.” 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.

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.

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

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.

On September 25, 2012, in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Kojima stated: "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 that "I kind of aged along with Snake and matured alongside him. As long as I’m creating Metal Gear and there’s a Snake in it, that Snake will always be a part of me, reflecting parts of myself. 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."