Hideo Kojima Reflects on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on Its 14th Anniversary

Peace Walker was nearly Metal Gear Solid 5.

By Logan Moore

In the midst of its 14th anniversary, director Hideo Kojima has released a lengthy statement sharing new insight on the development of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. As a direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the PSP entry in the series is often a bit overlooked as it's not a numbered installment. Despite this, Kojima has explained that Peace Walker was at one point going to be titled Metal Gear Solid 5 before plans changed. 

In a new post on X, Kojima opened up about the creation of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and its eventual release in 2010. Kojima said that following his work on Metal Gear Solid 4, he decided to create a new game engine that would be later seen in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. While waiting for this engine to be developed, he then came up with the idea of Peace Walker, which would evolve the Metal Gear series in a new way. 

Interestingly, Kojima revealed that Peace Walker was originally supposed to be called Metal Gear Solid 5: Peace Walker. However, when Konami tested this title, it "faced strong opposition" from those outside of Japan. As a result, the numbered title was cut and later used in what would be The Phantom Pain. 

"It's been 14 years since the release of Peace Walker," Kojima began. "I was still in my mid-40s at the time. Many game companies had started shifting towards developing apps for feature phones. After creating Metal Gear Solid 4, I strongly felt the need for a proprietary engine. The leap forward for games in a vertical direction would only come after the engine was complete. In the meantime, I proposed Peace Walker as a way to evolve MGS horizontally."

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"Initially, it was titled Metal Gear Solid 5: Peace Walker, but it faced strong opposition from overseas marketing, so we dropped the numbered title," he continued. "Since it was for the PSP, we lowered the target age range to middle and high school students, aiming to discover younger fans and build a multi-generational following, with parents and children enjoying the game together."

Despite no longer being at Konami, it's clear that Kojima still has fond memories of working on the Metal Gear Solid series as he talks about it often on social media. Moving forward, Kojima will be tapping into this genre once again with Physint, which is a future project from Kojima Productions that is being billed as a Metal Gear spiritual successor. In the near term, Kojima's main focus remains Death Stranding 2, which is set to launch at some point next year. 

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