Kojima Shares Interesting Reason Why Ground Zeroes Came Out Before Metal Gear Solid 5

Summary

It may be hard to believe, butMetal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, the playable prologue toMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, has officially turned 11 years old. Indeed,the budget bridge between Peace Walker and Phantom Pain was released on June 30, 2025, making it fully eligibleto play games rated E10+.

In celebration of the game’s birthday, series creator Hideo Kojima took to social media to share some interesting tidbits surrounding the development of the game, including why exactly it released ahead of The Phantom Pain.

There Weren’t A Ton Of Games Around, Kojima Says

Taking to Twitter, Kojima shared that Ground Zeroes was meant to be a demonstration of the capabilities of the FOX engine, as well as just how an open-world stealth game could work. He alsoreiterated past comments about the game serving as an episodic test.

More importantly, however, is the fact that the game was being considered for release alongside The Phantom Pain. But “the PS4 was released and there were only a few titles out, so just GZ was released ahead of the others.”

Kojima isn’t necessarily wrong. The PS4 had launched a few months prior in November 2013, and by March 2014 there weren’t a ton of games around. Granted,that same week inFamous Second Son did manage to launch, givingthe console more than a handful of “killer apps.”

Additionally, Kojima noted that the team “threw in as many gameplay elements as possible,” even if the episodes themselves were short. As a sandbox, Ground Zeroes does have a wide variety of ways to go about things, offering a level of replayability that isn’t seen too often in games of its story genre.

As a final note, Kojima did recognize some of the revisionism surrounding the title. “Although it is recognized now, 11 years later, there was online negativity at the time saying, ‘Selling a demo version at a low price?’ and it received the lowest rating in the MGS series,” he wrote. He’s not wrong about that last part, though game prices will seemingly always be a contentious topic. Either way, Happy Birthday, Ground Zeroes!