In brief: Cipher lasts forever, especially licensing. Konami is learning nearly the pitfalls of borrowing someone else'south belongings equally information technology works to re-upwards its rights to historical footage used in Metal Gear Solid two and 3. In the meantime, information technology pulled both titles from all digital stores and streaming services.

Konami announced the temporarily removal of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from digital stores while it renews the licenses of the historical footage they contain. The company hopes to make the games available again once it has restored licensing.

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all have versions of the games available on their platforms. Nvidia and GOG also have pare in the game. A consummate listing of all affected versions follows:

  • PlayStation 3 Metallic Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty Hard disk Edition
  • PlayStation 3 Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater Hard disk Edition
  • PlayStation 3 Metal Gear Solid Hd Edition
  • PlayStation Vita Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Freedom Hard disk drive Edition
  • PlayStation Vita Metallic Gear Solid three Ophidian Eater Hard disk Edition
  • PlayStation Vita Metal Gear Solid Hd Drove
  • PlayStation At present Metal Gear Solid Hd Collection
  • Xbox 360 Metallic Gear Solid HD Edition: 2 & three
  • Nintendo 3DS Metal Gear Solid Serpent Eater 3D
  • GOG.com Metal Gear Solid ii Substance
  • Nvidia Shield Metal Gear Solid 2 Hd for Shield Boob tube
  • Nvidia Shield Metal Gear Solid iii HD for Shield Television set

Konami's vague clarification of "select historical archive footage used in-game" doesn't specify the problematic scenes. Considering how much real-world footage is establish in both games, information technology volition exist hard to pinpoint the verbal parts without Konami's help.

At to the lowest degree Konami is looking to renew the licenses instead of simply eliminating the expired footage. The same can't be said virtually GTA IV, which Rockstar as well removed from digital stores after some of its music licenses expired. When the game returned, many songs were missing from the radio stations.

Konami needs to maintain the historical footage in the Metal Gear Solid games as it sets the footstep, story, and atmosphere. That's a large part of the Metal Gear Solid feel that fans of the franchise adore. Without this footage, Metallic Gear Solid games wouldn't be the same.