Fans of the Metal Gear franchise waited a long time to get their hands on Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, but by all accounts, the wait was worth it. The game has earned the series an unprecedented amount of success, releasing to critical acclaim and quickly becoming the best selling Metal Gear game in the history of the franchise.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is absolutely massive, hundreds of times larger than its prologue Ground Zeroes, and is, in many ways, a gaming masterpiece. However, despite the game's length and incredibly large open world, there was still content that was left on the cutting room floor. Now some of what that cut content actually was has come to light.

Apparently users on the Facepunch forums have extracted data from Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom that has revealed a cut third chapter for the game, entitled "Peace". As those that have been playing the game since its launch last week may know, Metal Gear Solid 5 consists of two chapters, Revenge and Race, and both are absolutely packed with content, which makes the realization that an additional third chapter was originally in the game as well almost unfathomable.

As to what this third chapter may have entailed, there are plenty of possibilities. Some past trailers of the game may offer some clues, such as the E3 2014 trailer, which showcased a burning village that didn't make its way into the finished product. Furthermore, the E3 2013 trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5 had a disturbing sequence featuring child soldiers, which also doesn't appear in the released game.

More evidence of what was possibly cut from Metal Gear Solid 5 can be found at the 2014 Tokyo Game Show. It was there that Hideo Kojima showed off new gameplay footage, depicting a mission in Africa, which, again, can't be found anywhere in the actual game.

It's entirely possible that these sequences were planned for the game's removed third chapter, Peace, but it's likely that we will never really know one way or another. Why Chapter 3 and the aforementioned scenes were cut from the game is something we can't be certain about, it may have something to do with Metal Gear Solid 5's troubled development cycle. As has been widely publicized, Hideo Kojima and Konami had some sort of a falling out, but the exact details behind their strained relationship still have yet to be revealed.

Even though the third chapter has been removed from the game, perhaps we will see it down the road as a DLC expansion. The game is not shy at all when it comes to DLC, as it has a pretty hefty amount of microtransactions, so there's little doubt that Konami would love to put out an expansion for a chance to make even more cash on Metal Gear Solid 5.

If the cut Chapter 3: Peace story content from Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain was ever made available for separate purchase, would you buy it? Let us know in the comments, and also give us your speculation as to what Chapter 3: Peace would've been about if it made the final cut for the game.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is currently available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Source: Gaming Bolt