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 Metaru Gia Soriddo Guraundo Zero) is the new canonical installment in the Metal Gear series, being developed by Kojima Productions. This game was promotionally known as "Next" Metal Gear Solid. Ground Zeroes is a prologue to "Metal Gear Solid 5", according to Hideo Kojima. After taking on more of a background role for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, 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.

Ground Zeroes is running on Fox Engine and will be published by Konami. Kojima confirmed that the game will launch on current-gen consoles. It has been said that the game will go multiplatform, and the trailer shows both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 logos.

Big Boss is the protagonist of the game and he will be commanding a military group called the "Diamond Dogs." Kojima promised that the game will be a "authentic stealth" sequel to the series. Kojima also implied in the interview that Solid Snake might have a role either in this game or Metal Gear Solid 5.

History
Hideo Kojima stated at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show:

"Solid Snake's storyline has ended with MGS4. But there's still a lot more when it comes to Naked Snake's storyline."

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

In November 2011, Kojima alluded to be working on "Project Ogre", and released a screenshot of a game in development via Twitter.

In a November 2011 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." Kojima added, "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.

"Rather than making something cinematic, [I plan to] make something very free." Kojima told CNN of his new game, in late 2011. 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.

In December 2011, Kojima talked about initial ideas for his new game's storyline and how the staff insisted on him being involved in development of the game:

"Metal Gear Solid 4 wrapped up in 2008, and the dev team took post-project time off right after that. But, of course, we were in a situation where we had to start planning for MGS5. So I started coming up with several ideas. I had several ideas for a game featuring The Boss and the Cobra Unit during the Invasion of Normandy. I then handed these plans over to the team so they could take over and make the game. I presented my ideas to the team during the summer of 2008. However, simply dropping MGS5 on the younger staff members was a bit heavy and there was resistance to doing it without my involvement. At the time, I was working on a new project. It was during the planning phase of that project and I wanted the staff to take charge of the new title. There was resistance to that idea, though. It was then that someone proposed the idea for what would become Rising. It was a game based on Raiden's story, since MGS5 had too much weight to it. It would be a side story that the team felt more comfortable working with."

In January 2012, Kojima dropped more hints about the project, stating: "It's a very subdued experience – it’s a little bit different to what I’ve done up until now. On the surface it will look similar, but once you get into it, it will be a different experience – and I’m hoping people look forward to that. But Project Ogre is going to take a lot of time, so I want to produce some other things on the side, like I’m doing with Metal Gear Rising. So while I’m working on Project Ogre there might be a couple of other projects going on at the same time."

Official announcement
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 involved Big Boss, and that Kojima Productions was recruiting engineers at the Game Developers Conference pavillion between March 6th and March 9th to "help develop next-gen game engine technology for use with the Fox engine", "high-end consoles and PC." In addition, the entry to the site had an "Uncle Sam"-style poster called "BIGBOSS wants YOU! THE "NEXT" MGS" and a motto which reads "DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT BORDERS" was seen under it. No official title for the game was mentioned. The site itself contained a manilla folder (in a manner similar to classified folders) 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.

Pre-Metal Gear 25th Anniversary
On February 23, 2012, Kojima stated on his Twitter account that his Project Ogre dealt with ogres. Kojima, the same day, later clarified on another Twitter post that Project Ogre dealt with the use of ogres, and did not mean it was an ogre or that it was created from the soul of an ogre.

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 25th Anniversary segment of the show, implying that the 25th Anniversary would have some involvement in the development of the game.

On June 20, 2012, in an interview with the French magazine IG Magazine, Kojima dropped more hints stating: "There will be a MGS5 with the new Fox Engine, but what we showed was not the in-game play, or something like that. It was only a demo that we had developed internally and that we released because the lighting and all interactions with the environment had fooled everyone." Kojima has promised that the next ‘proper’ game in the series will be espionage, "About Metal Gear Solid 5, I can tell you two things...There will be much question of infiltration, espionage and convince people to give you "a favor" in the last MGS." He also pointed out that "I liked the idea of ​​social interactions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but we'll see." He also stated that "We have not yet finished with Solid Snake, despite the fact that I wanted to let him die at the end of Guns of the Patriots."

On July 11, 2012, Kojima told Famitsu that the 25th Anniversary announcement would occur on August 30, citing the project as something that "connects people." Similarly, in the same issue, there was a timeline of Metal Gear games that were released that then showed a question mark over the 2012 entry, implying that a game will be released sometime around this time. In addition, the 2012 and the 1987 entries were also colored in red, suggesting some connection between the two.

A site depicting the 25th Anniversary party posted an announcement stating that they would hold an announcement on their future plans for the franchise at an invite only party, as well as stating that they would announce events relating to the anniversary at a later date, as well as how to participate in them.

On July 12, 2012, during Comic Con, Cliff Bleszinski was brought backstage by Kojima to see "some crazy stuff," which Bleszinski later posted on his Twitter account, although he does not make it clear as to whether the "crazy stuff" was in reference to "Next" Meta Gear Solid or not.

On July 17, 2012, an incident occurred where "leaked screencaps" cited to have come from a "secret showing" for Metal Gear Solid 5, were placed on the Internet claiming that they were from Kojima's secret showing for Metal Gear Solid 5. However, Konami UK rebuked the images as being faked on Twitter, with Kojima also confirming in his Twitter account that the images were faked. Kojima initially had no idea what people were referring to with the images until he saw them before apologizing. Similarly, Ken Imaizumi also posted confirmation that the screencaps were fake.

On July 23, 2012, speaking with the PlayStation Blog about 25 years of Metal Gear, Kojima revealed that his studio would be showing off their new Fox Engine on August 30th in Japan. While Kojima didn't say specifically that his team would be revealing or announcing anything new about Metal Gear Solid 5, he did say that his team aimed to test their new engine by building a game which makes them able to refine their tools:

"The Fox Engine is nearly finished, but the only way to be sure it works is to create a game at the same time and improve the engine with our tools as we go along. Originally we were going to do this for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but a lot happened along the way and instead it is being made with the engine they have at Platinum Games. Production studios in Japan are nearly extinct, a fact that we have recognized for nearly 10 years, and although the Fox Engine is not finished we are ready to show what it can do… on August 30th in Japan to be more specific."

Session 166 of the KP Report Podcast also implied that most of the trailers in the 25th Anniversary celebration will also appear at Penny Arcade Expo. In addition, the 25th Anniversary was stated to be unveiled at the European Expo.

On August 21, 2012, Eric Bossic, 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 25, 2012, Kojima Productions Podcast member Ken Mendoza and Chris Johns, his sidekick, revealed that Metal Gear series' 25th Anniversary announcement would "shake up" the video game industry.

Metal Gear 25th Anniversary; Official announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes
On August 30, 2012, A promotional mirrored image was released by Metal Gear 25th Anniversary site, in which words written in backwards read: "From "FOX", two phantoms were born." Militaires Sans Frontières logo is on Big Boss's (left) arm and a (flipped) FOX logo is on the top corner of the image.

Also a 20 minute demo related to this game was shown during the 25th Anniversary celebration in Tokyo, demonstrating Fox Engine's abilities. According to the tweets by some of the attendees, the demo showed Snake crawling, avoiding searchlights, killing two guards, driving a tank, and then calling a helicopter for evacuation. The demo shown was running on a high-end PC which was according to some sites at current Gen specs, which equals to Xbox 360 and PS3, however no platforms were announced during the event. 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. The demo is said to run 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.

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 reiterates that Ground Zeroes is a current-gen game, though Fox Engine is scalable for next-gen as well. He wouldn't give specifics on the name, but calls the game "a beginning" rather than an end for the series.

Official PlayStation Blog, social media manager Sid Shuman confirmed that Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes will be multiplatform.

It was also confirmed that Ground Zeroes will feature a massive open world for players to interact with. Snake will have access to a helicopter to travel to different missions, and he’ll even be able to listen to some tunes. 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.

On September 1, 2012, gameplay footage of Ground Zeroes was shown publicly for the first time at PAX. In it, Paz Ortega Andrade, whose survival was confirmed, along with Chico had been captured by an unknown military group. Both characters were revealed to be on Camp Omega controlled by XOF, an American-owned military installation located on Cuba, and Big Boss's mission in the gameplay is to retreive both of them.

At PAX, 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.”

Kojiman was speaking in light of Ground Zeroes North American debut at PAX Prime in Seattle, USA over the weekend and has expressed his frustration at people constantly asking him what Project Ogre is – and confirmed that it’s not Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes:

“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. Ogre does not appear in ‘MGS Ground Zeroes’ trailer," he Tweeted.

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," said Kojima. "I’m putting all my effort into that."

Kojima also added that he is making a different title for next-gen consoles.

Trailers

 * Extended version