Two iconic Metal Gear Solid games are disappearing
A pair of iconic Metal Gear Solid games are about to vanish from digital storefronts. Konami has announced that it will be delisting Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from various digital stores beginning today, with several different versions disappearing. The good news is that these removals should only be temporary, as Konami plans to bring them back in the future.
Why Konami is delisting two Metal Gear games
As with many digital delistings, Konami's reason for removing Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 from digital storefronts comes down to licensing. As Konami explains on the Metal Gear Portal Site, these games are being removed as it works on renewing licenses for historical archive footage used in both titles. We don't know what footage, specifically, is setting off the licensing issue, as Konami didn't get into specifics with its announcement.
The removal is a far-reaching one. Not only are there HD editions of both games being removed from multiple storefronts, but there are also some compilations that are going away too. Platforms losing these games include PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, GOG, PS Vita, PlayStation Now and even NVIDIA Sheild. Check out the full list of games being removed below:
• PlayStation 3: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD Edition
• PlayStation 3: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD Edition
• PlayStation 3: Metal Gear Solid HD Edition
• PS Vita: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD Edition
• PS Vita: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD Edition
• PS Vita: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
• PlayStation Now: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
• Xbox 360: Metal Gear Solid HD Edition: 2 & 3
• Nintendo 3DS: Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D
• GOG: Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
• NVIDIA Shield: Metal Gear Solid 2 HD for Shield TV
• NVIDIA Shield: Metal Gear Solid 3 HD for Shield TV
That's the complete list, though Konami notes that some of those games aren't available in all regions. The removal begins today worldwide, so we should start seeing these titles disappearing from storefronts shortly.
These games will (probably) return
In its post announcing these delistings, Konami says they should only be temporary removals. The plan seems to be to remove these games as Konami works on renewing the licenses associated with that historical archive footage, then relist them when new licenses have been hammered out.
Licensing is behind many of the delistings we see. A number of games have been removed from digital storefronts because of the expiration of music licensing agreements, though most of the time, it seems like publishers don't bother renewing those licenses. Instead, the games are either delisted permanently or re-released with new music tracks in place of the old, licensed songs. In some cases, we've even seen developers update games to remove songs with expiring licenses without first delisting them.
It's interesting that Konami is going to the effort of renewing the licenses for Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 when most of the titles that are affected are for old hardware that's no longer in production. The fact that Konami is pursuing new licenses could mean that the company plans to include Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 in future compilations for modern hardware and considers the historical archive footage integral to the experience of both games.
In the end, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. It is worth noting that talks to renew these licenses may ultimately fail, which would mean that Konami then would have to remove the footage in question before it can begin selling MGS 2 and 3 again. Whatever ends up happening, we'll let you know when Konami announces more about these vanishing digital versions of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3.