What's going on with Metal Gear Solid remasters, exactly?

Tokyo Game Show is two weeks away, and it may be Konami's most exciting showing at a big gaming event in years. According to Konami's TGS schedule, it has a reveal of a new game planned for September 16. There's a long list of Konami series that deserve a comeback—Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Contra, Suikoden—and according to a report by VGC, we might see one of them on stage at the event.

“One publishing source told VGC that the reveal is likely to be related to a smaller project, rather than Konami’s larger planned revivals for Castlevania, Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid (the first of which is understood to be furthest along in development),” wrote VGC. Maybe Metal Gear won't be at this show—but accumulating evidence points to Metal Gear's return being a matter of when, not if.

The first three Metal Gear Solid games are almost certainly getting remasters for PC and current consoles. VGC's Andy Robinson first reported in October 2021 that MGS 1-3 are being remastered for release ahead of a full-on remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The remasters have been corroborated by Silent Hill leaker Dusk Golem, who wrote on ResetEra this Wednesday: 

“The thing I've been a bit teasing of, and I know is 100% true, is Metal Gear Solid 1-3 are getting new Remasters, planned to come to everything, including Steam and consoles. The plan is new remastered versions of Metal Gear Solid 1-3, can buy them separately, but if [you] buy them together as a collection also get Metal Gear 1+2's MSX versions. I've had this confirmed to me more than once from more than one reliable source.”

Even if these remasters don't appear at Tokyo Game Show, an announcement seems likely before the end of the year because Konami has essentially teased them already. Last November Konami had to remove Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 from digital storefronts due to licensing issues with historical archival footage they included. They're still gone, but on July 13 of this year, Konami tweeted “Today marks the 35th anniversary of the #METALGEAR series! Thank you to everyone that enjoyed and celebrated the series so far. We ask for your patience as preparations are underway to make the temporarily removed titles available again.” 

Given how long it's taken for Konami to bring back MGS2 and 3, it would make sense to hold off on selling them again until the remastered versions are complete. Both games were originally released for the PlayStation 2 and remastered for consoles in the 2011 HD Collection. A remaster would mark the first time MGS3 has been released on PC.

According to VGC Metal Gear Solid 3 will also be getting a ground-up remake from Virtuos, a Singaporean game company with 15 offices and 3000+ employees across the world. Virtuos has an extensive list of credits for contributions to triple-A games and has contributed to Switch ports for Dark Souls Remastered, Dying Light, and The Outer Worlds, among others.

“Konami’s Japanese bosses are understood to have historically pushed back against most pitches to outsource its key games brands,” VGC wrote in 2021. “However, following the disappointing performance of recent in-house titles Metal Gear Survive and Contra: Rogue Corps, VGC’s sources said the company has become more willing to contract outside studios for its major franchises.”

Supposedly a new Castlevania, as well as Bloober Team's Silent Hill, are both in development thanks to Konami's increased willingness to work with more external studios. Given the smoke around Silent Hill earlier this year, it may be the one destined for the TGS stage this month. But in Konami's own words, Metal Gear Solid's coming back. We don't know exactly when or exactly how, but after more than a decade since the (ironically 720p) HD Collection, a new round of remasters feels like as safe a bet as bets come. 

Once the first three games are all properly playable on PC, I hope Konami tackles a trickier challenge: figuring out how to extricate Metal Gear Solid 4 from the PlayStation 3's Cell processor and making it playable on hardware from this decade.