Kojima says it would have been better if his team had released both Metal Gear games at the same time

The most massive Metal Gear game to date, and well.....it's going to take quite some time to finish. The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes are part of the same storyline, with GZ being the prologue, but bringing out both titles together, it's just not happening. Hideo Kojima recently sat down with Famitsu in an interview talking about the need to split them up into two games. The Phantom Pain is 200 times bigger, and aside from that, the PS4 will have to become more adapted with the gaming audience before bringing it out is even practical. That brought the need for bringing out the smaller and more "ready" Ground Zeroes title.

"It would've actually been better to release it all at once, but by the way things are going, it appears likely that Phantom Pain will be coming out around the time the PlayStation 4 becomes more spread out. That means we would've had to make people wait a while longer."

 "Prior to the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V, last year, we showed a Fox Engine implementation video. Then, we also showed the Fox Engine in a presentation video at GDC 2013. Since we revealed information on a regular basis, there were many who believed that Metal Gear Solid V was already complete, and there were many voices from fans saying 'we want to play it soon."

"However, The Phantom Pain has enormous volume, so it will require much more time. So, together with the marketing staff, we consulted 'what ifs' and such, and came to the decision of allowing fans to at least play the prologue, ahead of time. We want to offer it for as cheap as possible, so at first we thought about making it as a download only; however, after thinking about people around the world, and how some places don't have the best connectivity, we're preparing a physical version."

Kojima went on to suggest that those who have save game data from Ground Zeroes will be able to make use of it with The Phantom Pain. Sounds like a carry over for some extra content. Seeing as how The Phantom Pain will be an enormous open world setting, you likely shouldn't expect it to see the light of day until sometime in 2015. This is why Ground Zeroes is being released this coming Spring time. You have to give the players something to chew on until then right? Right.

Via Siliconera
Original Famitsu

When the Playstation 4 is adapted on a wide basis, then The Phantom Pain will make its release date

Famitsu seems to get more answers recently from Hideo Kojima than most other publications. The most anticipated answer everyone is seeking is when the heck is The Phantom Pain going to be released? Kojima did give an answer to that almighty question........well, sort of. Here is the bulk of his answer to what he told Famitsu recently. When asked why he wanted to separate Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain into two different releases at two different times, Kojima responded that releasing Ground Zeroes before Phantom Pain will give players a chance to get used to how the new Metal Gear game plays. Since TPP is 200 times bigger than GZ, it will also give his team a chance to fine tune it. Releasing the prologue first will also hold them with something to do until TPP can get completed.

So when will The Phantom Pain be released?, here is a rather loose time frame, and no where near as specific as you might have hoped.

"It looks like we'll be able to release The Phantom Pain around the time that the PlayStation 4 becomes widely adapted."

Widely adapted. That should take quite a while, since brand new systems take a good deal of time to get integrated into the market, at least on a world wide bases. Where does that leave TPP? Likely somewhere in the vicinity of 2015 it seems. Even though both titles were made to run on Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware, their PS4 and Xbox One counterparts, which by the way will be a higher resolution version, will take the slow train to the homes of a large number of people.