Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Was Intended to be First Chapter in an Episodic Series, Kojima Reveals

As Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes celebrates it ninth anniversary, director Hideo Kojima has shared some insights into what he had planned for the game, which was apparently intended to be the first chapter in an episodic series. Instead, it served as a prologue to the much larger Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

According to Kojima, the idea was to deliver episodes of Metal Gear Solid V in a similar way to a “streamed drama”. He explained that “GZ was originally planned as a prologue to MGSV, an important introduction to root Snake's (the player's) vengeance in the main story, and the theme of MGSV is retribution.”

Kojima added that the idea was to reduce the time it takes to develop each game, and that Ground Zeroes was a way of experimenting with an episodic approach. “In fact, it was my big intention to launch GZ. The development of a full game takes for 4-5 yrs. Times change during production. So I thought of offering an episodic format, like a streamed drama, where one episode is produced and distributed. GZ was meant to be an experiment.”

He concluded that “after the launch, many people seemed to expect GZ to be ‘full game’ and did not get my intention. It was felt to be too early."

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes released back in March 2014, and proved to be rather good, despite its relatively small size. Meanwhile, Kojima is currently hard at work on Death Stranding 2 for PlayStation 5, a sequel to the open world deliver ‘em up released for PS4 in 2019, which also got a Director’s Cut for PS5 in 2021.

Also, we've been musing what Konami might be planning for the Metal Gear series without the guiding hand of Kojima.

In fact, it was my big intention to launch GZ. The development of a full game takes for 4-5 yrs. Times change during production. So I thought of offering an episodic format, like a streamed drama, where one episode is produced and distributed. GZ was meant to be an experiment. https://t.co/EeyJAs2HCR

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 20, 2023