Konami’s latest Metal Gear Solid Delta Production Hotline proves they’re actually listening to fans

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has a lot of weight on its shoulders. As a huge Metal Gear fan myself, the third entry in the series is, in my view, the best of the bunch – blending Hideo Kojima’s stunning storytelling with gorgeous visuals and incredibly memorable cutscenes and moments.

Konami’s attempt to revive MGS 3 is like someone trying to ‘remake’ the Mona Lisa – a piece of artwork so perfect that the exercise could be seen as futile. With new control schemes and revised visuals, can Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater recreate the brilliance of Hideo Kojima’s PS2 original?

Metal Gear Solid Delta devs are actually listening

I have been watching the development of Snake Eater for some time, and have been impressed by the openness and accountability shown by Konami. Taking on a task like this, especially following the less-than-lukewarm reception to Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Volume 1, would always have its critics, so being transparent and accountable from the off is exactly what’s needed. Enter the Production Hotline, a video series that documents and acts as a conduit between the developers and Metal Gear fans.

Of course the most important is to be responsive to our fans concerns,

Metal Gear series manager, Jiro Oishi

The latest edition perhaps captures the spirit of the team best. The developers’ entire feedback format has changed after listening to fan complaints about its prior formality. Metal Gear series manager, Jiro Oishi admitted that in previous episodes they, “didn’t actually say that much, huh?” The manager admitted that, as a result, the show has changed to be more useful to those anticipating the game.

“What we want to do with Production Hotline is to be a channel for the production team to speak straight to fans, check in on our progress, and talk about the development process,” Oishi said. “Of course, the most important is to be responsive to our fans’ concerns, so we’ll keep doing Ask The Metal Gear team, too”.

Respect for the fans

It’s incredibly clear that there is a huge amount of respect for the source material and, rightly, Konami is leaning into the fan base to ensure there are no strategic missteps. It’s certainly refreshing to see such a huge publisher show this level of transparency in game development. In the indie scene, this is nothing new, but a heavy-hitter publisher providing a window into nearly every part of development? That’s a lot rarer.

Even more rare is a publisher coming out and openly showing playtest data and feedback from the recent preview build. This sort of information is usually kept under wraps… here, they’re showing it, warts and all. Yes, it does paint a positive picture, but to highlight and show negative feedback is commendable, and yet again reinforces the narrative that player feedback is being seriously considered. A lot of the gripes were focusing on the inclusion of ‘gated areas‘, which Konami has since tried to justify.

“We also saw some criticism, such as how it doesn’t feel very original because it follows the original game too closely,” said Oishi. “Or how each area being gated by a separate space with loading transitions feels very outdated”.

Responding to this sort of feedback will be crucial if the team is to make amends for the Metal Gear Master Collection, and prove they’re the right people for the job. There is no replacing Kojima, the team has admitted that, but can Delta be an enjoyable game in its own right as well as balancing a faithful remake? It’s certainly looking that way.