The Phantom Pain Announced, May Actually Be Metal Gear Solid V

During tonight’s Video Game Awards, a brand new video game was announced by a previously unheard of developer: The Phantom Pain, by Moby Dick Studio.

The game’s reveal trailer, seen above, depicts an elderly man being thrown into a series of chaotic events within a hospital, ranging from armed soldiers firing at a crowd of civilians to a seemingly large, flaming whale jumping through the sky. While the trailer’s content is certainly bizarre, what’s even more bizarre is that it may actually be the public’s first glimpse at Metal Gear Solid V.

The most obvious references to Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear series are the characters seen in the trailer. The main character bears a remarkably similar appearance to Big Boss, the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. In addition, characters similar in appearance to Yevgeny Volgin and the Sorrow, both from Metal Gear Solid 3, appear at the 2:30 and 2:59 marks, respectively.

More evidence to support this claim is found in materials outside the trailer’s footage. The “About Us” page on Moby Dick Studio’s official website states that the developer’s CEO is a man named Joakim Mogren. While this may seem unimportant, Joakim is an anagram of “Kojima,” and Mogren features the word “ogre,” which is the codename for one of Kojima Productions’ unannounced projects that is known to not be Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

Finally, the last bit of evidence is found in the game’s logo. In the trailer, the logo for The Phantom Pain features seemingly random lines and missing parts of letters. However, as spotted by several NeoGAF members, these markings allow for a very specific phrase of words to be spelled out: Metal Gear Solid V. Credit for the image seen above goes to NeoGAF member BurnOutBrighter.

While no official word from Konami or Kojima Productions has been given regarding the game, at this point, The Phantom Pain‘s relation to the Metal Gear franchise is all but confirmed. The Phantom Pain is currently in development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Source: Spike Video Game Awards 2012