Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be playable at the Tokyo Game Show 2024, KONAMI confirmed. The publisher didn’t really share any other details on what would be in the demo, but it won’t be long until they’ll have to, especially since TGS 2024 is around the corner (it will be held as usual in Tokyo’s Makuhari Messe between September 26 and 29).
Yesterday, KONAMI also published a new episode of the Metal Gear Production Hotline, a video podcast with plenty of updates on the franchise straight from the developers. In the episode, KONAMI addressed the early feedback of the select press that got to play Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater at an exclusive event. According to the publisher, over 88% of the impressions were positive. The main criticism was that the game was perhaps too faithful to the original. On that subject, Production Producer Noriaki Okamura explained:
I would just mention a few things about this being “too faithful,” and the thought process behind that. When people ask, “couldn’t they have improved on this?” “Wouldn’t it have been better as a more modern stealth game, with much more freedom to it?” I do understand where they’re coming from, and in the early stages of development, that was actually our most hotly debated issue. But at the end of the day, well…
We saw the discussion of how “it feels outdated to go to an area, and nothing you do there affects other areas,” but that’s just how the game was designed. The rhythm and the shifting pace of gameplay flows from that choice. If we had done anything to change that overarching design, it would have changed Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater entirely. And given what we were setting out to do, we questioned whether that really fit with the vision for this project. So we decided that we’d rather come down on the side of “too faithful,” and that we’d rather maintain the original design of MGS3: SE instead of try and rework everything.
But we’re also seeing plenty of coverage where that level of faithfulness was pointed at as a good thing. So, I think players might just need to see the game and try it for themselves to decide if this approach works.
Later in the episode, Okamura also provided a progress update on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater:
We’re working very hard on the development, I promise, but we’re just not yet at the stage where we can say with confidence exactly when it will be out. I can tell you that, from start to finish, the whole game is already playable, so we know it’s not going to be years and years. Nothing like that, I’m pretty sure.
But as far as where we’re at… We’re at the stage of, “check this part,” “fix that,” looking over everything and taking care of any issues. And as developers, we want to take our time with that to make sure everything is done right.
It sounds like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will probably require a few months of polishing, making it increasingly likely it will launch at some point in 2025.
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