The appearance of Naked Snake (not to be confused with his clone progeny Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake, or his brainwashed doppelganger decoy Venom Snake) during the announcement of a remastered version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater undoubtedly qualifies as the biggest surprise of this week’s PlayStation Showcase event.
For those not as enthused at the prospect of Konami remaking one of the most celebrated stealth action games of all time without the involvement of the series’ original creator, there’s a silver lining. The company is also re-releasing the first three Metal Gear Solid games on PlayStation 5 later this year, along with two earlier entries in the Metal Gear saga built for the NES: 1987’s Metal Gear and 1990’s Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
The title of the re-release, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1, implies the possibility that later titles in the series such as Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker may also be released on modern consoles in the future. The PlayStation Store listing for the collection states that it will include the HD Collection remastered ports of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which were first released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.
The Metal Gear Solid series has not received a new entry since 2018’s Metal Gear Survive. The last canonical entry in the series, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, was released in 2015 and was the last to be directed by series creator Hideo Kojima, who left Konami to become an independent developer following the game’s release.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 is expected to be released on PlayStation 5 later this year.
