Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Is Standalone, Releases In Spring 2014

While Kojima had made it sound as though Metal Gear Solid V would be one package encompassing the prologue – Ground Zeroes – and the rest of the game – The Phantom Pain – Konami have just revealed that these will both retail as standalone titles.

So, Ground Zeroes will introduce gameplay mechanics, which aim to ease players into the open world environments, which will then be expanded upon with the release of The Phantom Pain, presumably later in the year, with Ground Zeroes effectively acting as a bridge between old Metal Gear Solid and new.

Since it’s a shorter game, and effectively a bridge title, Ground Zeroes will retail at £29.99 boxed, or £19.99 if you want the PS3 or Xbox 360 download versions. If you want the PS4 or Xbox One download versions, then you’ll have to shell out £29.99.

This is an odd move, particularly since Ground Zeroes contains vital elements of the overall story. It seems as though they’re expecting you to pay £70 or £80 minimum for the full Metal Gear Solid V experience.

Konami have also released some new screenshots, which you can see below:

I don’t think any one game should be split up into two parts, no matter how much content there is – Fallout and The Elder Scrolls offer hundreds of hours of play, but it’s always the same price point. This is as if they’re doing downloadable content the wrong way around.

Source: Press Release

11 Comments

  1. “I don’t think any one game should be split up into two parts, no matter how much content there is.” Surprised to see you say that, as a Pokemon fan ;)

    • Yeah, but for that you choose one and leave the other unless you’re a bit wrong in the head – with Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, you need both parts for the full experience and story.

  2. Makes me wonder how long it’ll be until they release the full game with both titles together. Could be worth waiting for if one can muster the patience.

  3. Dat sterile art style.

  4. I thought this was going to be similar to MGS2’s Tanker-Plant setup, shame it’s not. I’m still hoping that Hayter voices Big Boss, will be getting both regardless but it’ll be a bit disappointing if he really was just brushed aside.

    • It is a similar setup, they’re just selling it as two products.

  5. People will be more willing to deal with a higher combined price if the purchases are spread apart.
    I wonder how much content Ground Zeroes actually features for that price.
    If it exists to ease the player into gameplay mechanics, then what sense would it make for me to play it ages before the actualy game comes out? By then I’ll probably have forgotten half of it and I don’t see how a probably small change up in the formula requires people to buy and play a glorified tutorial…
    Not sure what to think about this.

    • I reckon Ground Zeros will be more similar to Peace Walker than Kojima is letting on, with plenty of base and supply management to keep is busy and perhaps pad out an introductory quantity of plot. I guess there’s plenty of people who haven’t played Peace Walker, maybe this is all to make sure they’re not left out?

      You’ve got a point about forgetting stuff, but I think that’s a feature of the series. The story is so complicated and deep that playing the preceeding games again before a new release is almost to be expected!

  6. Seriously cant wait for this game. Why not PS4 Disc though. Hmm

  7. This is what I thought would happen and what people kept telling me I’m wrong about. Ha.

    Dont particularly like the idea of having to pay so much, but if there’s enough content there to warrant the price then it’s not a massive deal for me.

  8. I wonder if the Ground Zeroes portion is destined for PS+ not long after the release of The Phantom Pain?

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