The Metal Gear 35th Anniversary website is fake
[Update 2022/04/04 13:00 JST]
The website was updated on April 1 with a pop-up message stating, “This website was made as an April Fools joke to parody Konami and the Castlevania auction.” The site’s design does strongly resemble that of the Castlevania 35th Anniversary NFT page, which opened in January of this year.
The fake Metal Gear NFTs are all based on Hal Emmerich, making it pretty obvious who the site creator’s favorite character is. They aren’t actual NFTs that are being sold, though. Clicking on each link will take you to a notification page regarding the temporary removal of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 from digital storefronts. It looks like the site creator’s primary intent lies here.
In November of last year, Konami announced the temporary removal of these two games due to delays in license renewals for “select historical archive footage used in-game.” Konami stated at the time that they would renew the licenses and make the games available for purchase again (related article).
“Konami, please don’t sue me. I’m a big fan. Instead, please use the resources you’d put into hiring lawyers towards buying the historical footage licenses needed to put MGS2 and MGS3 back on digital storefronts. I hope there’s no hard feelings, and I’m happy to transfer ownership of this domain to Konami for free,” says the site creator in the pop-up message.
[Original Text 2022/04/01 20:22 JST]
There has been some speculation about the newly found website titled “Metal Gear 35th Anniversary official website” as to whether it’s actually an official website created by the rights holder Konami. It does look authentic as a teaser site with Konami’s copyright notice and links to the company’s corporate pages listed at the bottom.
However, it turns out the website is fake. Konami replied to GAME Watch’s request for comment, saying that it’s not an official website created by them, and they’re currently considering how to address the matter.
It’s not the first time someone trolled Konami using one of their iconic video game franchises. In fact, it was just a month ago when someone bought the silenthill.com domain name, displaying a now-deleted tweet from Silent Hill 2 and 3’s art director Masahiro Ito. It was obvious at a glance that the site was fake, but the new metalgear35th.com page is made to look more believable. The site’s existence was made known right before April Fools’ Day, so there was a lot of room for speculation.
The website turned out to be fake, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Metal Gear series is reaching its 35th anniversary in 2022. The original Metal Gear was released in July of 1987 for MSX2, and although the series creator Hideo Kojima left the company in 2015, there’s always a possibility of new Metal Gear-related content or merchandise. Will Konami do something to celebrate the occasion? We’ll have to wait and see.
