Why You Shouldn’t Expect ‘Metal Gear Solid VI’ Any Time Soon

Metal Gear Solid V is a success, of course, selling five million copies and headed toward a long life of obsessive fan videos and critical praise. And good thing it’s a meaty game, too, because Konami is doing everything short of selling the rights to North Korea to keep from making a sixth one.

Kotaku has translated a Nikkei article about the franchise and, uh, things are not looking great. Franchise mastermind Hideo Kojima has bailed, even if Konami won’t admit it. Keep in mind that Konami took his name off the game he developed, canceled his next game despite enormous fan enthusiasm, and is currently in the process of firing everybody he’s worked with over the last five years. We assume Kojima will find greener pastures elsewhere.

So, they’re down their celebrity developer, but they still have the Metal Gear rights. All they have to do is, uh, lay down a lot of money. Considering they’ve been trying to save scratch while getting game developers to quit by forcing them to work as janitors, the odds of that happening seem low.

Where does this leave the series? Our best hope for another game is if Konami gets out of the video-game business altogether, which it’s becoming clear it dearly wants to do. If that’s the case, they could easily sell the rights to another publisher, with Square Enix being a likely candidate, and Snake would get another turn sneaking through the grass. But until that happens, don’t hold out hope for a Metal Gear Solid VI.

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