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Stop Screwing With Your Fans Konami

Stop Screwing With Your Fans Konami

After the asinine announcement of Metal Gear Survive , Konami has decided to dig its hole to gaming hell even deeper. Konami announced August 30 that it will be releasing Metal Gear Solid V: Definitive Edition . The new edition is said to contain the “ultimate collection” of the Metal Gear Solid V story, including The Phantom Pain , Ground Zeroes , and their DLC contents. Konami has hinted that the additional content from MGS V: The Phantom Pain Collectors Edition will be included as well. Especially the famed “Kingdom of the Flies” mission that quite a few fans were hoping Konami would fully develop. Needless to say, The Phantom Pain ‘s ending left a lot of loose ends that fans wanted tied more coherently to the next game chronologically in the story, Metal Gear (1987) . To be honest, “Kingdom of the Flies” does just that, focusing on Eli instead of Big Boss and making the connection to Liquid Snake a lot more logical.

For those that don’t already know, Mission 51, or “Kingdom of the Flies” is half-finished additional content found only in MGS V: The Phantom Pain Collectors Edition . It was scrapped from the original game for reasons stated later in this article, however it is integral in connecting MGS V (a prequel) to the very first MGS game. Mission 51 follows the plot thread of Eli and Psycho Mantis after they steal the Metal Gear at the end of MGS V . It’s also a chilling callback to William Gibson’s The Lord of the Flies, as Eli and his band of rescued child soldiers set up a rather uncivilized kingdom. Because of the links this canceled mission has with the rest of the Metal Gear Solid series, many fans feel it’s essential to any complete version of MGS V .

Konami, apparently, doesn’t feel the same way. The argument about the ending of MGS V began again after the announcement of the Definitive Edition with a snide tweet by Gregory Walsh . He wondered how this “ultimate collection” could be so definitive if the ending was still missing. In response, Konami insisted that the ending to MGS V had never been missing as the game is a prequel to Metal Gear (1987) . Fans of MGS , of course, had a lot to say about that statement. Walsh pointed out, quite rightly, that Mission 51 was the “missing” ending that MGS V should have had – the conclusion that everyone was looking for. Konami again insisted otherwise. It insisted that Mission 51 had nothing to do with anything; it was merely additional story content that was cancelled before MGS V was finished and not at all associated with Mission 50. MGS V ended at Mission 50 and that’s that, according to Konami.

Well, clearly marketing this new edition of MGS V has failed spectacularly. Arguing with fans about what is canon and what isn’t is not the way to get them to buy your new game. Especially with such a controversial topic as Mission 51, Konami should have just let its fans have the ending in the Collectors Edition and made the effort to include it in the Definitive Edition as well. What harm would it have done, honestly? I think Konami would have done much better to appease its fans and stay silent on the matter. Konami has put its foot in mouth enough times during the feud with Kojima. What it needs to do now is listen to the fans and end the Metal Gear series with “Kingdom of the Flies”. There’s enough content there to make a whole new game and even without Kojima, it would probably be a decent game. But again, the company really shouldn’t be arguing with fans about the ending they so clearly desire in full.

Stop Screwing With Your Fans Konami

That said, I do understand where Konami is coming from this time. Even Kojima has implied that he would prefer MGS V to end at Mission 50. Here, Kojima states “good speculation of MGSV TPP by 2 Japanese best-seller Novelists,” then linked to said conversation about the game. The quoted conclusions suggest strongly that “Kingdom of the Flies” would have made the game too long and frankly lose the focus of what Kojima intended for the ending. It’s not an official word from Kojima, but I think the man enjoys his mystery enough to say things without really saying them. In addition, “Kingdom of the Flies” was probably extra content the same way concept art for a movie is; it just happened to be very well liked by fans who wanted a more firm conclusion to the MGS V story. Thus, Konami is perfectly within its rights to say that “Kingdom of the Flies” isn’t canon and won’t be included in the Definitive Edition .

However, coming out and stating that about a fan-favorite piece of content while trying to market a new edition is not a good plan. It’s pure bad marketing and is not going to win Konami any favors after Metal Gear Survive . Even if Konami’s motivations are sound this time around, starting an argument with fans is not the way to sell Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Definitive Edition . Konami should have just let it be and given fans what they wanted.

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