Today marks the long-awaited launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, so expect to start hearing about the many easter eggs that director Hideo Kojima likes to hide in his games. One such piece of content in particular is receiving quite a bit of attention thanks to the game that it references.

Anyone who has been following the development of The Phantom Pain will be well aware of the troubles that have emerged between Kojima and Konami. As the studio attempts to move away from the big budgets of console development, it's quite understandable why the auteur director would feel out of place.

That difference in ethos has led to an ongoing feud between director and publisher, which thankfully doesn't seem to have negatively impacted the finished product. However, it has already claimed one major scalp — something that many fans are still rather unhappy about.

When we found out that Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro were set to collaborate on Silent Hills, fans of both men and the venerable survival horror series alike were delighted. It seemed like the perfect combination of talent to tackle the resuscitation of a franchise that had seen better days.

The game was revealed via a downloadable demo entitled P.T. — shorthand for Playable Teaser — that was released to the PlayStation Network. The highly praised demo demonstrated exactly why players should be excited about the prospect of Silent Hills, but unfortunately the anticipation that it managed to build was soon to be dashed.

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Earlier this year, Konami announced that the P.T. demo would be removed from PSN amid speculation that the project had been cancelled. Given Kojima's impending departure from the company, it's not difficult to imagine the series of events that led to this decision.

However, with Kojima safe in the knowledge that his time with Konami was coming to an end, it seems that the director has opted to sneak some hints toward the failed project into The Phantom Pain. The first one that's hit the Internet is a radio broadcast that can be found on the border between Angola and Zaire.

The clip is a news broadcast that recounts the story of P.T. — a tease that's likely to play with the heartstrings of anyone who was looking forward to the game. It seems unlikely that we'll see the project brought back to life at this point, but at least this inclusion suggests that Kojima hasn't forgotten about it.

The open-world nature of The Phantom Pain means there's far more scope than even before for content like this to be hidden away. Now that the game is available to be looked over in detail, it'll be very interesting to see just what's concealed in it's deepest, darkest corners.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is available now for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.