Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is shaping up to be one of if not the biggest video game release of 2015. Kojima Productions has put everything it’s got into the first Metal Gear game for the PS4 and Xbox One, and it shows.
While MGSV is looking like the most impressive game in the franchise when it comes to gameplay and presentation, it might not have any future competition.
Speaking to IGN in an interview, Hideo Kojima shared that he plans for this to be the final Metal Gear he works on. He stated:
I always say this will be my last Metal Gear, but the games in the series that I’ve personally produced – Metal on MSX, Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 3, 4 and Peace Walker – and now Metal Gear Solid 5 constitute a single Metal Gear saga.
He added:
With Metal Gear Solid 5 I’m finally closing the loop on that saga. In that sense, this will be the final Metal Gear Solid. To me, this is the last Metal Gear.
If you’ve been following Metal Gear for a while, this should come as no surprise. Kojima said the same thing before the release of Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, but Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots as well. Though, he does have a point about MGSV wrapping things up. The timeline between Metal Gear Solid 3‘s Cold War events and the mid 90’s that Metal Gear is set in have been left unbridged. Set in the 80’s, MGSV will fix that.
The important thing to understand is that Kojima’s career, while expansive, is defined by Metal Gear. He was identified as just another game developer before the release of the first game. Now, he’s considered one of the most successful game developers of our time. You could say that it means everything to him, and that’s not easy to walk away from.
Related: MGSV: The Phantom Pain to Release in September
We have no reason to truly believe that this will be Kojima’s final Metal Gear. But if so, the IP would surely live on, only without the consistently outstanding direction of Kojima.
