The future of Metal Gear is as murky as it’s been since series creator Hideo Kojima parted ways by Konami, but even though there’s plenty of uncertainty over what lies ahead, fans of the series or those who want to see what all the fuss is about can, of course, always go back and jump into its older entries. For those who prefer digital purchases though, those options are going to be restricted for a while in the neat future.
Konami recently announced that Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will both temporarily be leaving all digital storefronts starting today. Konami says it’s “currently working on renewing the licenses for select historical archive footage used in-game” in both titles.
As such, various versions of the two games will be taken off-sale across a number of storefronts on multiple platforms. The full list of Metal Gear products being taken off-sale is as follows:
- PlayStation 3 METAL GEAR SOLID 2 SONS OF LIBERTY HD EDITION
- PlayStation 3 METAL GEAR SOLID 3 SNAKE EATER HD EDITION
- PlayStation 3 METAL GEAR SOLID HD EDITION
- PlayStation Vita METAL GEAR SOLID 2 SONS OF LIBERTY HD EDITION
- PlayStation Vita METAL GEAR SOLID 3 SNAKE EATER HD EDITION
- PlayStation Vita METAL GEAR SOLID HD COLLECTION
- PlayStation Now METAL GEAR SOLID HD COLLECTION
- Xbox 360 METAL GEAR SOLID HD EDITION: 2 & 3
- Nintendo 3DS METAL GEAR SOLID SNAKE EATER 3D
- GOG.com METAL GEAR SOLID 2 SUBSTANCE
- NVIDIA SHIELD METAL GEAR SOLID 2 HD for SHIELD TV
- NVIDIA SHIELD METAL GEAR SOLID 3 HD for SHIELD TV
There’s no word yet on exactly when all of these products will be made available for digital purchases again, though hopefully it won’t be too long of a wait.
Interestingly enough, a recent leak has strongly suggested that Singapore-based developer VIrtuous is currently working on a ground-up remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. A former Virtuous employee also mentioned on his LinkedIn page that while at the studio, he worked on an “unannounced AAA action-adventure remake”.