Believe it or not, but it has now been nine years since Konami and Hideo Kojima released Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. The title, which would end up becoming a prologue to the real new entry, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, was something of an enigma, as it is often considered a teaser for the critically acclaimed latter title and not a full playthrough. Kojima himself seems to acknowledge this when he reminisced about the title on Twitter. In fact, Kojima has an even more ambitious idea for Ground Zeroes at the time; an episodic format that would be released at different time intervals.
Kojima points out the developmental times for most titles were starting to grow longer, approximately four to five years which was becoming the standard. Kojima states that with this in mind, he envisioned Ground Zeroes becoming an episodic entry, where it would be “streamed like a drama.” These episodes would then be distributed digitally, and we also assume physically to some extent, with new content and missions being added at different intervals. Kojima goes on to say that Ground Zeroes was “mean to be an experiment.”
Considering how Ground Zeroes turned out, this isn’t terribly far from what Kojima had imagined. As we mentioned, the game ended up becoming a prelude to the next main entry, The Phantom Pain. This was only solidified due to both bearing the V roman numeral, and forever cemented Ground Zeroes as an abridged Metal Gear Solid experience. Other studios have utilized the episodic format. Telltale Games famously used this for all of their titles, which were presented as interactive television episodes where the player made several critical choices that changed the outcome.
IO Interactive also did this with the 2016 Hitman title, which allowed them to develop each level at great length, adding more and more content every time. As for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the reason as to why Kojima did not go with his initial idea was due to the insanely high expectation of the fan base. Knowing this well beforehand, he abandoned the episodic format feeling that it “felt to be too early.” Ground Zeroes was well received, but it was nothing compared to the mammoth success of The Phantom Pain, which many still consider to be the quintessential Metal Gear Solid experience. Kojima would continue his imaginative ideas in the coming years, albeit without Konami, and without Metal Gear Solid.