New questions about Metal Gear Survive’s network requirements could diminish excitement, stemming from this week’s release date announcement , about Konami’s next game. Recent industry trends suggest the team’s networking decisions might not be as impactful as they once were. But it’s a bit surprising we haven’t heard about Metal Gear Survive’s network requirements before this week.
Now that Metal Gear Survive has a launch date, Konami is accepting pre-orders for its first survival game on PSN, Steam and Xbox Live. Those product pages include a handful of details about the project, many of which we already knew, like the fact Metal Gear Survive includes both single and multiplayer content. But the game’s PSN listing also includes a warning we haven’t seen anywhere else, including Konami’s recent press releases: You need an active internet connection to play the next Metal Gear. It’s not clear if that only applies to the game’s cooperative content, which is all online, or if you’ll need a network connection for the solo campaign too.
We’ve reached out to Konami for more information on the matter, and will update this post if/when we hear back from the publisher. In the interim, fans will have to hope unnecessary network requirements don’t dissuade people from checking out Metal Gear Survive. Such requirements aren’t the obstacle they once were. But there are still millions of gamers who don’t connect consoles to the internet frequently -- it’s part of the reason Sony never considered an always-on system -- if ever. And plenty of them are probably Metal Gear fans too.
For more on Metal Gear Survive, check out the gameplay footage shown during last year’s Tokyo Game Show (yes, it’s really the most recent from Konami). Then head down to the comments and let us know if you plan to purchase Metal Gear Survive when the game debuts early next year.
Metal Gear Survive is in development for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game debuts Feb. 20, 2018.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Metal Gear Survive news in 2017 and however long Konami supports Metal Gear Survive after launch.
