Hideo Kojima has been at the centre of controversy this year, that’s for sure. The legendary Japanese designer’s breakup with his employer Konami was certainly one of the top video game controversies of the year, as was his Quiet character in Metal Gear Solid V, which some considered one of the most sexist characters in a video game to date.
But Kojima may yet have the last laugh, though. Because despite parting ways with Konami and the criticism levelled at Metal Gear Solid V due to the Quiet character, the game itself has been hailed by many as a masterpiece of the action-stealth genre, and boasts a Metacritic score of 93 at the time of writing. Metal Gear Solid V has also sold extremely well, with more than 3 million copies of the game flying off the shelves on its launch day alone, according to gaming website gamerant.com.
And those enjoying Metal Gear Solid V are likely aware of the fact that the game contains plenty of secrets and Easter Eggs, including an appearance by Kojima himself at some point in a hidden location in the game. But another big secret was recently revealed by Konami, as it seems that the nuclear disarmament event in the game actually exists.
This is part of Metal Gear Solid V’s multiplayer mode known as Forward Operating Base (FOB for short), a Player vs Player mode in which one side gets to infiltrate the opponent’s base to steal personnel and resources, while the other side defends their base from attack. And the nuclear disarmament event involves dismantling all of the nuclear weapons in player’s bases so that the total count in each of the game’s regional servers reaches 0. Players can get rid of their nukes voluntarily or other players can persuade them to give them up by force…
Metal Gear Solid V designer Hideo Kojima has more than one trick up his sleeve…
But why did Kojima include this secret event in Metal Gear Solid V? We must remember that Kojima hails from Tokyo, Japan, the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons in history, in the closing chapter of World War II in 1945. Japan has a pacifist constitution and has vowed never to build or use nukes, and anti-nuclear weapon sentiment is very strong in the country. So it makes sense that Kojima came up with this original side activity, especially if the final reward of it is worth player’s time.
But sadly player’s recompense for ridding Metal Gear Solid V’s multiplayer ecosystem of nukes has been known for some time now, as a hidden cutscene was found in the game’s code, which appears to be the only reward for ridding the world of nuclear weapons (see below). In it one of Metal Gear Solid V’s characters rambles for a bit too long about the future safety of the world, and the cutscene is scant reward for all the player work involved in triggering the event.
Could there be more though? The hidden cutscene was found in the game’s code and the real event has not been triggered yet, as there are still plenty of nukes in Metal Gear Solid V’s multiplayer world. Konami has been tweeting the totals for some time now, and a nuclear-free world, at least a Metal Gear Solid V nuclear-free world, is still a long way away, especially on PC as there are still thousands of bases with nuclear weapons in that version of the game still. But hopefully gamers will be able to accomplish this task, proving that a world free of nuclear weapons is not an impossibility, not even in a video game…