February 15, 2021 – The ambitious Metal Gear Solid board game is not moving forward. According to creator Emerson Matsuuchi, IDW Games is no longer moving forward with the project. Apparently, this decision was made in December and Emmerson has been “pursuing a myriad of options to keep the project going”. It is unclear what will come of that.
Being without a publisher is one thing, but being without a lucrative video game property license is a whole other animal. Anyone can get a game published these days with enough sweat equity but you can’t just make a game license for Metal Gear Solid happen. You need Konomi (the video game publisher) to want to be a part of it.
In case you are unaware or just forgot, this game was originally announced in December of 2018! This one has been in the works and long touted as a big epic game with lots of buzz materials and exciting updates over the years. It is unclear why the publisher pulled out or exactly what happened, but there have been several delays and many unanswered questions. Worse yet, the game has been available for pre-order through both Amazon, as well as, Backerkit, which indicates that more than 2,000 people committed more than $109 each for a copy of the final game.
It is nice that the creator is being as transparent as possible, but a very sad an aggravating experience overall.
Here is the full message from the creator’s BBG post:
The decision was made back in December not to move forward with the MGS Project. Since that time, I have been pursuing a myriad of options to keep the project going. I have offered to put in capital from my company to help fund the last leg of the project, and even to buy out IDW’s interest in the project along with purchasing all of the assets. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any traction with those options.
The rights to the design were finally given back to me a few weeks ago. So I have reached out and enlisted the help of a friend that is a bonafide expert in licensing and has connections with Konami. We’re working to keep this project alive and exploring possible options. While there are no guarantees that our efforts will bear fruit, I’m still optimistic that we will be able to get the MGS game to market, to the patient fans that have been kept waiting.
I also want to thank the team that worked with me on the MSG project at IDW. It was an incredible experience working with the talented folks there. It has been an honor to be given the opportunity to work on this beloved IP.
“Now go, let the legend come back to life!”
-Ocelot
