Konami to shut down Metal Gear Online tonight
Tonight the Metal Gear series will be saying goodbye to a much under-rated feature, Metal Gear Online.
The online game was originally included with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots, and will go offline tonight at 23:59 JST (02:59 NZT), on the four-year anniversary of its release.
According to a release from Konami, the game was originally only meant to last for three years, but the deadline was ‘continually pushed back’ due to ‘respect for our loyal fans’.
"Nevertheless, we have regretfully come to a point where players have experienced all that this iteration of Metal Gear Online is able to offer,” the company says in a statement.
The shut-down comes just after the E3 gaming conference, at which Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima gave an extensive interview with CVG, touching at one point on the division between social and hardcore games.
"I don’t think they’re that separate,” Kojima says.
"Both social games and hardcore games will evolve together, and at some point I feel the social side of things will converge with the core games.”
Kojima even believes that his own games could incorporate social aspects.
"Metal Gear may at some point get involved. I have a lot of ideas on how social aspects can make Metal Gear more fun but I can’t talk about that today.”
The gaming visionary’s latest project, currently codenamed Project Ogre, is being kept firmly under his magic hat; however, he does say the new game will tackle a new set of real-life issues and touch upon some sensitive areas.
"The Metal Gear saga looked at certain issues…I’m going to start a new series now focused on new issues. I’m not going out of my way to tackle a taboo subject, it’s just that to tell the story I want to tell I have to cross that bridge. I’m not just going to do it for the sake of it.”
It has been a long wait since MGS4 for a Hideo Kojima game – the day Project Ogre is released will be like Christmas. Unfortunately, with no release date yet, Christmas will probably come earlier.
