It was November of 2021 when Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 began disappearing from digital stores due to expired licensing around “historical archive footage” featured in the games. At the time Konami assured us that the delistings were only temporary but after being gone for so long now it really seemed like new HD releases would be forthcoming. I was just going to check on the delisted PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases yesterday when Konami saved me the trouble and announced Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1.
The Snake Eater remake took the spotlight with its fully updated visuals but the Master Collection is also intriguing. The updated package will be released ahead of the remake and will include the original Metal Gear Solid, MGS 2: Sons of Liberty (HD Collection version) and MGS 3: Snake Eater (HD Collection version). Given the parenthetical, these will likely be straight ports of the previously delisted releases, possibly with edited video content depending on how that licensing worked out for Konami.
What’s also interesting is that this collection is labeled as Volume 1, implying that further volumes are forthcoming. This will hopefully — finally — include Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots which has been locked to PlayStation 3 (emulation aside) since its release in 2008. As robust as that game is, it doesn’t seem like quite enough to fill Volume 2 alone so we’re likely to also see Peace Walker (HD Collection version) included. That likely means that the current digital releases of Peace Walker will be delisted at some point in the future as well as the Portable Ops titles which seem like fitting additions to a subsequent collection. Who knows, maybe the Metal Gear Acid series finally makes a digital appearance as well.
With that, I’m going to finally accept that the previously delisted titles aren’t coming back and we’ll work to get them officially added to the site later on.