On Metal Gear’s 35th anniversary, Konami says it’s ‘preparing’ to bring back delisted games

Konami has stated that it is “preparing” to reinstate Metal Gear titles that had been previously delisted from digital stores.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the original Metal Gear, and the official Japanese Metal Gear Twitter account posted a tweet celebrating the occasion.

However, awkwardly, fans still can’t play many series entries on modern consoles due to them having been pulled from storefronts last year. Konami said on Wednesday the games would soon return.

“The Metal Gear series, launched on 13 July 1987, celebrates its 35th anniversary today,” the tweet reads. “We are preparing to resume the sale of titles that had been temporarily suspended.”

The statement likely specifically relates to Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, which had to be removed from sale in November 2021 because, according to Konami, some of the real-life archive footage used in them had been licensed and those licences were now expired.

“We are currently working on renewing the licenses for select historical archive footage used in-game, therefore, we have made the temporary decision to begin suspending the sale of Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and all products that include these games from digital storefronts globally starting from November 8th, 2021,” a statement at the time read.

“We sincerely ask for your patience and understanding as we work towards making these products available for purchase once again.”

The full list of games that have been temporarily removed from sale (and are presumably the ones being referred to in Konami’s new tweet) are as follows:

• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD Edition (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD Edition (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid HD Edition (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD Edition (Vita)
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD Edition (Vita)
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (Vita)
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PlayStation Now)
• Metal Gear Solid HD Edition: 2 & 3 (Xbox 360)
• Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (3DS)
• Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance (GOG.com)
• Metal Gear Solid 2 HD for Shield TV (Nvidia Shield)
• Metal Gear Solid 3 HD for Shield TV (Nvidia Shield)

Further reading

1

Metal Gear Solid games are being pulled from digital stores

Konami claims the removal is due to expired licences which will be renewed

The news does not appear to be related to VGC’s report in August that Chinese studio Virtuos is working on a new version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

In addition to the MGS3 project, Konami intended to release remasters of the original Metal Gear Solid games for modern consoles, we were told last year.