History of Metal Gear Timeline

A novel adaptation of the original Metal Gear was published in 1988 as a part of Scholastic's Worlds of Power line of novelizations, which were based on third-party NES games.

In Japan, a Metal Gear gamebook was published on March 31, 1988, shortly after the release of the game on the Famicom.

A radio drama based on the original Metal Gear Solid aired in Japan from 1998 to 1999 as part of Konami's syndicated CLUB db program.

In 1999, McFarlane Toys, with the collaboration of Konami, launched a series of action figures depicting key characters from Metal Gear Solid.

In 2001, following the success of the first series, and with the release of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, McFarlane Toys and Konami combined their efforts to produce a line of action figures depicting Sons of Liberty's main characters.

Konami also released 4" scale blind-box figures based on MGS2 released in Japan — Sons of Liberty in 2002 and Substance shortly after in 2003; the Substance series was eventually brought to the US and UK markets packaged on card rather than blind boxed.

A comic book adaptation of the original Metal Gear Solid was published by IDW Publishing in 2004.

Image source: Metal Gear Solid (video game)

A digital version of the first comic book adaptation was released for the PlayStation Portable, Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, in 2006.

A disc containing bonus content was released in 2006 as a pre-order disc for MGS3: Subsistence.

Image source: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

A second digital version, Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée, was released exclusively in Japan as a DVD release in 2008 and features fully voiced versions of both comic book adaptations.

A Japanese-language novelization of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots by Project Itoh was published on June 12, 2008.

Raymond Benson also wrote a Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty novelization, which was published in 2009. He had previously written a novelization of Metal Gear Solid published in 2008.

In 2009, toy company ThreeA joined forces with Kojima to make related products. A prototype of the resulting Metal Gear REX figure was first unveiled at the ReVenture hobby show in Hong Kong in April 2012.

The toys, which are from Square's Play Arts Kai line, were released in 2010.

The entire run of the IDW comic was collected again in a paperback book, Metal Gear Solid Omnibus, and released in June 2010.

In 2012, Hot Toys released a 1/6th action figure of Naked Snake in his original sneaking suit attire from MGS3, as well as the Boss.

The first fruition of the ThreeA partnership came in late 2012, when ThreeA released a massive 1/48 scale figure of Metal Gear REX, with working LED lights.

After Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Kojima planned to release the third Metal Gear game for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1994. The game that became Metal Gear Solid began development in 1994.

On May 18, 2009, a teaser site for the following installment in the Metal Gear series was uploaded by Kojima Productions. An article published in the July 2009 issue of Famitsu PSP + PS3 covered the content of the site and featured an interview with Hideo Kojima.

The new game was eventually revealed to be Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which was announced on June 1, 2009, at E3, during the Microsoft Press Conference.

At E3 2010, a demo, "Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater – The Naked Sample", was shown on the Nintendo 3DS.

Another mobile port of a previously released game was shown at Sony's PlayStation Meeting on January 27, 2011, where Hideo Kojima demonstrated a possible portable version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for the upcoming PlayStation Vita.

In November 2011, Kojima discussed with PlayStation Official Magazine (UK) the series' future, commenting on an upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5.

Image source: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

During a discussion panel at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in March 2012, Kojima stated: "I am working on something that I think will become the shining moment" for his career and the Metal Gear series.

On December 7, 2012, a teaser for The Phantom Pain was revealed on the Spike Video Game Awards.

On March 27, 2013, Kojima announced at GDC 2013 that Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain were two different portions of one work, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, with Ground Zeroes serving as the prologue and The Phantom Pain as the main story.

In 2015, Konami revealed that they were recruiting new staff members to develop a new Metal Gear game as Kojima left the company.

On August 17, 2016, Konami announced during Gamescom 2016 that a new Metal Gear game was in the works, known as Metal Gear Survive.

Image source: Metal Gear Survive

On May 24, 2023, during Sony's PlayStation Showcase event, a remake of Snake Eater titled Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater was announced.

Image source: Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Master Collection Vol. 2 was announced in February 2026, comprising Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010), in addition to the Game Boy Color title Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (2000) as a bonus game.

In 2002, IGN's editors ranked Metal Gear Solid as the best PlayStation game ever.

By February 2007, the series had grossed more than $1 billion from 20 million copies sold, in addition to having sold ancillary merchandise including 3 million strategy guides, 1.5 million action figures and 200,000 comic books.

Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 were featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games" exhibition taking place from March 16 to September 30, 2012.

As of 2019, the franchise has grossed about $2.5 billion worldwide.

The Metal Gear franchise has sold over 65.5 million copies as of December 2025.

The series has sold 66.4 million units as of the end of June 2026.

In May 2006, Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima announced that an English-language film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid was in early development.

In February 2007, it was announced that the movie would be developed at Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Michael De Luca producing and Kojima as executive producer.

Ultimately, before any cast or crew could be signed to the project, De Luca revealed in January 2010 that work on the film adaptation had been halted indefinitely.

The project was re-announced at the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary event on August 30, 2012: Hideo Kojima announced that Arad Productions (led by Avi Arad) would produce the Metal Gear Solid movie for Columbia Pictures, with Sony Pictures in charge of distribution.

On June 3, 2014, Deadline Hollywood reported that Sony was in talks with Jordan Vogt-Roberts to direct the film; he was confirmed attached in 2015. Vogt-Roberts emphasized his desire to capture the "tricky and idiosyncratic" tone of Kojima's writing and depict the "sprawling" nature of the series rather than solely adapting the 1998 game.

Jay Basu was initially announced as screenwriter in 2015, though Derek Connolly was hired to rewrite the script in November 2017.

Derek Connolly completed the first draft of the film's screenplay in July 2018, and another draft in December 2019; five years later, however, work on the script was still in progress.

For the role of Solid Snake, Kojima mentioned having originally wanted a "big star" (suggesting Hugh Jackman) but considered a relative unknown might be better; In December 2020, Oscar Isaac was cast as Snake.

In April 2026, it was announced that Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein had been hired as directors on the film, replacing Vogt-Roberts, following them signing a first-look deal with Sony Pictures.