Konami Reneges On Metal Gear Remake Blessing

Do you remember several months ago hearing about the development of a possible Metal Gear fan remake? It had quietly amassed a small following of developers, had Konami’s blessing and was looking for more help. Unfortunately, my then-fears have turned into current realities, as Konami has taken back approval and the project is considered dead, according to Kotaku.

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The previous agreement for the Metal Gear remake was a verbal one, made by one division of Konami. However, allegedly there was some inner-division politicking and debate over whether or not the remake should be allowed to be made by the mod group code-named Outer Heaven (of course). Unfortunately, for the project’s sake, it seems like the Japan team was not supportive of the project and has ultimately declined it.

I kind of understand their reasoning at Konami Japan. Who knows what the future holds, especially when you have Hideo Kojima himself say that he would like to see a Metal Gear Solid remake made with former team members at a different studio. It’s very possible that Metal Gear could be remade or remastered and published by Konami, who would greatly financially benefit from doing so. The Metal Gear series is still ongoing, meaning that there’s a very solid chance a fan remake of a former game could have a real impact on their sales.

Again, it goes back to the naivete of Outer Heaven. Of course, every “good, upstanding citizen” group should want to make sure copyright holders don’t sue their asses once their product containing copyright violation is released to the public, but at the same time, going the direct-to-publisher route has failed an immeasurable amount of times compared to developing in secret, hitting “send” out to the world, and vanishing without gloating or letting people know what you’re up to. I can’t even give current examples that are keeping a low key without both violating their trust and jeopardizing their ability to get their gaming projects out, but it can be done in this modern age.

So, that sucks. It’s bad that someone at Konami had initially given support to the project, but that’s the nature of the fan remake beast.

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