Leave it to Hideo Kojima to confuse even while he's allegedly revealing everything. While today was finally the day we had seen coming since the reveal of Phantom Pain back at the Spike VGAs, the specific details were somewhat surprising.

At a GDC panel dedicated to the Fox Engine, Metal Gear, and all things Kojima, the prolific developer revealed that both The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes were part of Metal Gear Solid 5.

As Kojima revealed, Ground Zeroes will be a prologue to the proper Metal Gear Solid 5 story, while Phantom Pain will be an early mission in the game. However, as MGS publisher Konami tells Joystiq that is not the case.

What Konami alleges is that Metal Gear Solid 5 and Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes are two separate games. They say that Kojima misspoke during the GDC panel which confused several news outlets. Moreover, they specifically label the game Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain.

We're unsure about the confusion, but we can see this going one of two ways. Either something was lost in translation, or Kojima is still trying to play mind games.

What's different about this dual game reveal, however, is that Konami came right out to say there are two games. They didn't play coy, and they didn't let Kojima make the announcement. Perhaps the GDC panel was supposed to be focused more so on Phantom Pain as MGS 5, and in explaining Ground Zeroes Kojima misspoke.

When Ground Zeroes was first revealed, Kojima made it a point to say that it was independent of MGS5, yet his announcement at GDC says the two are one in the same. But, one game is believed to feature Big Boss, while the other stars Snake. Is this a father/son affair? Is one game for current gen while the others is in development for next-gen? Don't worry, we're just as confused as you are.

Would you like Metal Gear Solid 5 and Ground Zeroes to be two separate games? Will the mind games ever stop?

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Source: Joystiq