Well, that didn’t take long.

Shortly after prolific developer Hideo Kojima revealed he had a big Metal Gear Solid 5 announcement to make, many begun speculating as to what the creator might unveil. Most figured it would be MGS 5: The Phantom Pain’s release date, and as it turns out they were right.

While Kojima and IGN had initially hoped to make the announcement on Wednesday, the video for the reveal leaked a little early. In it, Kojima talks about his history with the MGS franchise, how Snake factors into the story, and, as expected, confirms the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain release date.

Metal Gear Solid 5 will release on September 1st for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. There was some confusion for a bit as to whether Snake’s latest adventure would show up on PC, but thankfully Konami has cleared that up.

As far as the Metal Gear Solid 5 story is concerned, Kojima says that Snake will be more akin to a silent protagonist this time around. He says that players will guide the character’s actions rather than having him act in a scripted manner – flirting with women, for example. It’s slightly unclear what Kojima means by this comment, but it sounds as if Metal Gear Solid 5’s cut scenes will feature Snake reacting to his surroundings rather than taking initiative.

That’s an interesting choice, though, considering Kojima Productions hired Kiefer Sutherland to do the mo-cap for Snake. If he was to be more akin to a silent protagonist, why hire a big name for the role? For that matter, why replace David Hayter as the iconic voice of Snake?

Finally, Kojima closes out his message by revealing that this will be his last Metal Gear Solid game. After 27 years on the franchise, the developer feels that the Metal Gear saga is complete, and it is time to step away. Then again, Kojima said the same thing right before Metal Gear Solid 4 released, and here we are.

The man loves to surprise, so we wouldn’t be too shocked to see him make a return some time in the future. But, if Metal Gear Solid 5 does complete the story like early rumors have suggested, then that might be enough for fans to accept the end.

Clearly, Metal Gear Solid fans have a lot to look forward to this September – one final mission for Snake and one final MGS game from Kojima. Now that we know the Metal Gear Solid 5 release date, expect the promotional tour to ramp up in the next few months.

Do you think Konami picked a good release date for Metal Gear Solid 5? Will this really be Kojima’s last game?

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain releases September 1, 2015 for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Source: Gematsu