GAME · 2015
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Publisher
- Konami
- Platforms
- PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
19 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (19)
- #001
As 2012 progressed, the team unveiled screenshots and videos of the newly announced Fox Engine. This media showed many random settings and characters, none of them related to the Metal Gear series.
- #002
Some Fox Engine screenshots were noted to include a character resembling Big Boss from Metal Gear, walking toward a Stryker AFV that had previously appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4.
- #003
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was first announced as Ground Zeroes, unveiled by Konami at a private event on August 30, 2012 marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Metal Gear series. The game then made its public debut two days later at the 2012 Penny Arcade Expo.
- #004
In January 2013, Kojima announced that the game would be the first in the Metal Gear series to include Arabic subtitles, a feature the team had intended for earlier titles.
- #005
Kojima also confirmed in January 2013 that cutscene length had been reduced for the game, as he considered long cutscenes outdated.
- #006
At the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2012, a teaser trailer presented a game titled The Phantom Pain, attributed to a new Swedish developer called Moby Dick Studio and described as being "100% gameplay".
- #007
Moby Dick Studio was allegedly led by Joakim Mogren, and its mission statement said it sought to "deliver an uncompromising, exciting, and touching game experience to people all around the globe".
- #008
An actor playing the heavily bandaged Mogren appeared in an interview on the March 14, 2013 episode of GameTrailers TV, where he said he could not reveal many details but confirmed that more information about Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain would be revealed at the upcoming Game Developers Conference.
- #009
During that GameTrailers TV interview, the actor showed a series of screenshots on an iPad to host Geoff Keighley, and after Keighley pointed out the Fox Engine logo in the screenshots, the actor appeared nervous and the segment abruptly ended.
- #010
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was positioned as a prologue to the main game, which was officially announced as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
- #011
Kojima presented a trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and showcased the Fox Engine.
- #012
The trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain featured "Not Your Kind of People," a song from Garbage's 2012 album of the same name.
- #013
A fourth trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was shown at E3 2013 during the Microsoft press conference, presenting the game's new gameplay mechanics and its cast of characters.
- #014
An Xbox One version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was announced at the E3 2013 Microsoft press conference.
- #015
Konami announced a PlayStation 4 version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain the day after the Microsoft press conference, uploading a red band version of the trailer to their YouTube channel alongside the standard green band version.
- #016
According to Kojima, the trailers for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain showed the game running on PC hardware, though its textures and character models were somewhat based on seventh generation hardware.
- #017
Kojima contrasted The Phantom Pain with earlier Metal Gear Solid titles, which he said placed the player on a single rail from point A to point B with limited freedom.
- #018
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain gives players new traversal and sneaking options, including taking a helicopter to the mission area or deploying directly to landing zones for different approaches.
- #019
Players who previously played Ground Zeroes can import their save data into The Phantom Pain to gain special perks, and the weapons in The Phantom Pain are unlicensed and fictional as they were in Ground Zeroes.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work