The troubles between Konami and Hideo Kojima are widely known. Reports indicate that the famed creator of the Metal Gear series will be leaving Konami once Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain ships next month. With Kojima gone, fans have been questioning whether the Metal Gear franchise will continue and what a post-Kojima Metal Gear title would play like.
At the moment Konami does have plans to continue the Metal Gear franchise. The company posted a job listing in March indicating that it was looking for staff for a new Metal Gear series. Metal Gear has always been huge for Konami, especially the Metal Gear Solid series (yes, there were Metal Gear games before the Solid series). Konami would be dropping a huge franchise if the company did not plan to continue the series.
The big question is not if the series will continue, but how. The job postings were very clear that Konami is looking for main staff members to create a new Metal Gear series. When Kojima leaves Konami, many of the people involved with the Metal Gear Solid series will depart with him. It makes sense that Konami is looking for new senior staff to replace the people that will be leaving after The Phantom Pain. It should be reassuring that Konami wants experienced staff members to take over the franchise.
While losing Kojima is significant, there have been more than enough games in the series for an experienced director to continue guiding the franchise in the right direction. We may not see the innovation present in previous titles in the series, but there’s more than enough ground laid out for an experienced game director to take over the reins of the series.
With Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain due out next month, and Konami just starting to hire new staff this past March, it will be some time before any new Metal Gear games are announced. Don’t expect an announcement anytime soon as development on such a major title takes time. If we look back at the production of Metal Gear Solid 5, we see that the public first heard of a new MGS project back in February 2012, with Ground Zeroes officially announced in August 2012 and releasing in December 2013.
Ground Zeroes took over a year from announcement to release, but it was just a fraction of the size of The Phantom Pain. In fact, many people consider Ground Zeroes to be more of a demo for Phantom Pain than anything else. Konami didn’t even price the game as a full retail title, releasing it at a discounted price. The Phantom Pain will release in September 2015, three and a half years after the public first heard of a new Metal Gear game.
With Konami starting the hiring process for a new Metal Gear game in March 2015, we won’t hear any kind of announcement until at least next year and that’s being very optimistic. A 2017 announcement is a bit more believable, which would give us a release date of 2020 if the MGS5 timeline is anything to go by. Even Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was announced at E3 2005 and didn’t release until June 2008.
For the time being, yes a new Metal Gear game will be coming after Kojima and Konami part ways. However, you’re going to have to wait some time before the game is released. It wouldn’t even be all that surprising if the next Metal Gear title lands on Sony and Microsoft’s next console instead of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but that’s a thought for a completely different article. For now, just rest assured that a new Metal Gear is coming.
In the meantime, check out the best features of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online, as well as a brief history of the Metal Gear franchise!
