As Metal Gear Turns 35, Konami Says It Will Resume Sales Of Suspended Titles

Konami's Metal Gear franchise is now 35 years old. The first entry, created for the MSX2 computer by Hideo Kojima, arrived in Japan on July 13th, 1987 and would be ported to the Famicom / NES later that year, with a western release taking place in June, 1988.

From that first title, an entire franchise was born, with 1998's Metal Gear Solid turning Hideo Kojima's series into a world-famous video game property. Since then, we've seen entries on the Game Boy, PS2, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PSP and Nintendo 3DS. Many players consider entries like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to be among the best video games ever made.

Sadly, both of these titles were removed from digital storefronts in 2021, with Konami stating that it was a temporary move while it worked on renewing the licenses required for the historical archive footage present in each game.

However, in a tweet to mark the 35th birthday of the series, spotted by Gematsu, Konami revealed that "preparations are underway to resume sales of titles which have been temporarily suspended."

Kojima departed from Konami under something of a cloud in 2015, and the most recent entry, Metal Gear Survive, was met with a frosty reception from players. However, Konami hasn't abandoned the series, and is currently working on a live-action movie, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) directing and Oscar Isaac (Star Wars, Dune) starring as Solid Snake.