Metal Gear Solid: Two New Games and One Movie Announced

Big news has come out of Japan for the Metal Gear solid anniversary event.  First is that two new Metal Gear Solid games have been revealed: Ground Zeroes and Social Ops.  Second is that the long-rumored Metal Gear Solid movie has been announced.

Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops is, as you might expect, a social game.  The game will mark the series’ first entry into the social gaming network.  Social Ops will appear on the GREE network and has a release date between fall and winter of this year.  According to Andriasang the game will allow players to relive events from past games in the series, will have a Mother Base development system similar to Peace Walker, and will be a card-based game.  It will feature the Unity Engine and a playable build will be available at the Tokyo Game Show. Ground Zeroes is sure to be the game that any fan of the series has been waiting for.  At the MGS event a real-time demo was shown; and while people were asked not to reveal any details it didn’t take long for the silence to be broken. 

Many posts were swiftly deleted but this is the internet and news travels fast.  The game was reportedly running in real-time on a current-gen PC and looked stunning and highly detailed using Kojima Productions’ FOX Engine.  Hideo Kojima took the stage to show off a few bits of gameplay from the title.  Snake was shown going prone and sneaking around a military base to avoid searchlights, shooting a guard by going into third-person aiming, and hinting at an open-world setup since Snake can drive a jeep and summon a helicopter.  While it wasn’t specified which “Snake” you will be playing as it isn’t hard to assume that it will be Naked Snake/Big Boss due to the single piece of art released for the game.  Look hard enough by the goggles and you will notice part of an eye patch—a trademark of Big Boss.  Due to the futuristic look of the demo, however, we might be looking at someone else.  Personally, I’m excited at the potential for a sandbox take on the Metal Gear Solid universe and I’m sure Kojima will make sure it excels.  As of right now, no release dates or consoles have been formally announced but the game and FOX Engine were designed with the PS3 and Xbox 360 in mind though it can be catered for the next gen as well.

Finally, a Metal Gear movie was announced and it will be made in association with Columbia Pictures.  Avi Arad will be producing and was also on stage at the event.  Arad has many comic films under his belt such as X-Men, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, and the recent The Amazing Spider-Man (not to mention he is also working on the Uncharted film if that ever sees the light of day).  Columbia Pictures is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures, so hopefully that bit of information will be enough to assure fans that the movie is in the right hands for now.

No other announcements were made for the film or any other games.  Still, today is a great day to be a Metal Gear fan.  The Tokyo Game Show will take place next month and is normally full of new game announcements and footage.  It wouldn’t surprise me if footage of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes officially sees the light of day then.