Metal Gear Solid 5 Could Be a Prequel

Speaking in an interview with 1UP a week before the game's release, MGS4 assistant producer Ryan Payton said there is "still a lot of room for filling in the gaps as far as Big Boss is concerned." When asked about the possibility of a Metal Gear Solid 5, Payton responded, "There are some misunderstandings that this is the final Metal Gear game. But it's really the final chapter of the Solid Snake story. That's all."

"I'm happy we could wrap up Snake's story in MGS4," Payton stated earlier in the interview, continuing, "because it gets to the point where if we continue on with Metal Gear Solid 5 with more Solid Snake adventures, we'll get to the point where the game has absolutely no basis in reality. I do like the idea that this character has had four or five big missions and then that's when it ended, rather than have 20 missions where there's no chance in hell a secret agent could ever survive. He's had four or five really big missions, and that seems a little more realistic to me."