September 1, 2015 is when gamers will finally get their hands on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
The title has been a long time coming. Fans first caught wind of the title's development back in 2012, but it was likely in the works much longer than that. The Fox game engine alone no doubt required years of refinement.
With last year's release of the all-too-short "prologue" game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, fans loved the taste it gave of Hideo Kojima's latest game, but hated its brevity.
What gamers probably aren't expecting is for The Phantom Pain to be Kojima's last Metal Gear Solid. But in a new interview with IGN, the game director says just that.
To be clear, Kojima stops short of saying that the entire franchise is shutting down after Metal Gear Solid V. What he does say is that MGSV will be the last chapter of his "Metal Gear Saga." He clarifies that although there are other games set in the Metal Gear universe, such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, he considers the games that he has personally directed to be one cohesive story.
The games included in Kojima's serialized Metal Gear storyline are: the original Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, PSP title Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
"With MGSV, I'm finally closing the loop on that saga," Kojima tells IGN. "Even if the Metal Gear franchise continues, this is the last Metal Gear [of this saga]."
Kojima has stated in the past that previous Metal Gear titles would be his last, but it sounds as if he's designed The Phantom Pain to tie up loose ends and serve as the climactic chapter of the entire series.
Do you think Hideo Kojima will be able to let his signature franchise go? Is this really the end for him?
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