Remember that great-looking Unreal Engine 4 fan remake of Metal Gear Solid? Remember how you’ve spent every waking moment since it was announced dreading its unceremonious cancellation? Well, haha, about that…
The remake, which made ever our grumpiest Metal Gear sceptic, Luke Plunkett, go weak in the muscles he’s built up from years of playing soccer and avoiding non-lethal Australian animals, looked magnificent back in January.
Since then, development seemed to continue apace, and the dev team started teasing a “huge announcement” for March 14. Today, they stopped teasing and started packing it in. A brief message on their Facebook page reads:
We have an important announcement to make today: We have to cancel the Shadow Moses Project for reasons beyond our control. We would like to thank everyone for the tremendous support we have received.
This is disappointing, but not exactly surprising. Ambitious fan remakes bite the big one in a way worthy of our best, “Snake? Snake?? SNAAAAAAAAAKE” all the time. For every Black Mesa or Skywind, there are a ton of other fan projects that bleed team members and fade into obscurity or get Stern Warnings from the rights-owners of the games in question.
Given how well development seemed to be going, it definitely feels like outside interference played a role in the Shadow Moses Project’s demise. Granted, that is merely speculation on my part. I’ve reached out to Konami and the Shadow Moses team in hopes of learning more.
In the meantime, though, it’s worth noting the Shadow Moses team’s motivation for revealing the game in the first place. They explained in a post accompanying their debut trailer back in January:
Konami owns the MGS copyright and therefore sooner or later we will need their full permission. We have therefore chosen to openly share this project from the beginning so that we can deal with any issues that may arise as they come. We believe this is better than putting years of work into a project only to get it shut down. Please, respect this decision.
So… yeah :/
Comments
14 responses to “Metal Gear Solid HD Fan Remake Suddenly Shuts Down”
Or they shut it down themselves because thru here they wouldn’t be able to make the actual remake themselves and instead were using the project to boost their CV.
You don’t really get that much of a CV boost out of unfinished projects.
I’d imagine some of the stuff would make for a good demo reel to include with an application.
Thank you Konami … you fan-hating pricks.
It’s not like they were going to sell this.
Not surprising at all. Kojima was letting this slide but with Kojima out of the way, Konami comes swooping with their cease and desist.
Y’know I often wonder if there are business men doing this kind of stuff gleefully.
I know they’re just doing their job, but I still wonder if there’s some guy going, “hahaha, suck it!”
Which part of the article said that? Nothing in the article said Konami sent a cease and desist. The only information we have is that it was factors outside of the team’s control.
All you have to do is read between the lines. This has Konami written all over it. You know, because they’re evil
I think they were more upset it wasn’t Pachinko.
A look of shock is etched into my face
Fuckonami.
Given that they were planning an announcement and then said they had to cancel the project due to reasons beyond their control it sounds like a financial or licensing deal went south. I do love how everyone is already blaming Konami despite having absolutely no proof that’s why they stopped work.
I guess that’s the fun in doing a Konami project. If you call it quits people are just going to jump on the bandwagon again.
If Konami was in the process of negotiating the sale of the IP of Metal Gear (Solid) to a 3rd party they would need to protect it like this, heres hoping Sony is buying the IP.
I know its not likely but a man can dream cant he?