Hideo Kojima Explains Why Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Wasn’t Named MGS5, Blames It On ‘Overseas Marketing’

Hideo Kojima has revealed in a series of new posts on X why Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker wasn’t labelled MGS5 as originally planned, stating the decision faced a lot of opposition from overseas marketing.

After creating MGS4, I strongly felt the need for a proprietary engine. The leap forward for games in a vertical direction would only come after the engine was complete.

I proposed Peace Walker as a way to evolve MGS horizontally. Initially, it was titled MGS5: Peace Walker, but it faced strong opposition from overseas marketing, so we dropped the numbered title. Since it was for the PSP, we lowered the target age range to middle and high school students, aiming to discover younger fans and build a multi-generational following, with parents and children enjoying the game together.

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Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker was originally released in 2010 for the PSP and later ported to the PS3 as part of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, and received a standalone release in Japan. Peace Walker follows Snake as he runs the Militaries Sans Frontieres, aka Soldiers Without Borders, in Costa Rica in 1974.

Kojima-san would eventually develop Metal Gear Solid 5, of course, which was released four years after Peace Walker in the form of MGS5: Ground Zeroes and the following year’s MGS5: The Phantom Pain.

[Source – Hideo Kojima on X via GamesRadar]