Kojima on why Ground Zeroes is launching as an early standalone

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, the prologue to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, is launching as a standalone title because creator Hideo Kojima is impatient to release it — as well as give fans something to chew on while Phantom Pain is still in development, he said in a recent interview with Kotaku.

Kojima said he wanted to release Ground Zeroes as early as 2010, shortly after the launch of PlayStation Portable title Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

"Honestly, I really wanted to release Ground Zeroes right after Peace Walker," said Kojima. "Whether on PSP or PS3. But then we had development issues, some delays with Metal Gear Rising as well. And then we learned about next generation coming, so it ended up being the way it is now."

Kojima added that Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain were split up to give fans something to play while the latter is still in development.

"Of course it would be ideal to release Ground Zeroes and the main part of the game all together," he said. "But at the same time given that this week we have the next generation of game consoles coming out, a lot of the fans wanted to play something sooner. And given that the main game is a rather big game and still in development, it will take a little bit more time to get it out. We decided to listen to the fans and put at least the prologue out there so people will get the experience."

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes will launch in spring 2014 on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. There is currently no release date for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.