Konami has updated its Metal Gear Solid website to add timeline buttons for the games included in the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1, although digging into the page code reveals placeholder buttons for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid V.
These three games obviously aren’t included in Vol. 1 of the collection, so it’s interesting to note that they are included here. The most likely conclusion is that they are being prepped for a Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2, which Konami has yet to make official.
While this is just speculation, Nitroid on Twitter provides some additional context as to why the placeholder buttons are a little suspicious.
Chief among these reasons is that the timeline graphic is “actually a years old static image that Konami uses frequently but seldom changes. Here, instead of simply including the pre-existing image on the new page, they remove the game logos from the background and then programmatically replaced them with visually identical buttons. While this alone doesn’t suggest that the inactive buttons are indications of future game releases, it does suggest that new pages for these games are forthcoming.”
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 is due out on PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X/S on October 24, 2023.
[Source – Nitroid on Twitter]