Linear is something MGS fans are used to, which is why Kojima and his team created Ground Zeros, a prologue, which is basically a way for veteran players of the series to be eased into Phantom Pain’s open-world.
“You can think of it that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain as the big game and within that the first prologue to it is Ground Zeroes,” Kojima explained. “The Phantom Pain provides a vast world where the player can really go anywhere and get lost. But for past Metal Gear fans used to a linear experience it would probably be hard for them to get used to that without having a prologue and a way to get used to it.
“So Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes is an interpretation to really give them a very short, smaller version of that scale. In The Phantom Pain there are real-life day and night cycles but in Ground Zeroes the weather doesn’t change and it’s at night time. This is to help the past Metal Gear fans to get used to the fact that it’s now open-world.”
Kojima said the team has decided how it will will release Ground Zeroes just yet, but he did touch upon the multiplayer element.
“We plan on creating Metal Gear Online,” he said. “Multiplayer right now is being created at our LA studio as well as us,” he said. “We’re working closely to create a vast multiplayer for all the fans.”
And as far as the Moby Dick references in the game trailers to Phantom Pain are concerned, Kojima said the team is not ready to reveal who or what the White Whale is at this point.