Confirmed: Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain are separate games

 
It just wouldn’t be a Hideo Kojima game without a lot of confusion, mystery and backtracking. Now we have confirmation from Konami that the two games are separate.
 
Hideo Kojima announced that ‘Metal Gear Solid V’ will be ‘Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain’, but many people were confused how that fits in with ‘Metal Gear Solid: The Ground Zeroes’ which was also announced. Our Lead Editor Tony Hsieh then contacted Konami to figure out the mystery and were told specifically, “It’s two separate games”. The rep from Konami then double checked with her people and responded, “Two separate titles”.
 
‘Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes’ will be the prologue to ‘Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain’. So first comes Zeroes, then some version of the four ‘Snakes’ that share that name will be in a coma for nine-years and then you will have ‘Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’. All of this is being translated in bits and pieces from Japanese to English, and the fact that Konami decided to have a fake publisher and surprise everyone at GDC made it all the more confusing.
 
We are happy to confirm all of this with Konami’s team and now you can sleep better knowing that this is probably a fraction of the complicated story that will await you in the coming titles.