It was a sad day for "Metal Gear Solid" fans as the team behind the project to remake the classic PlayStation game for new generation consoles announced that they are abandoning the project. Indie game designer Airam Hernandez confirmed in a Facebook post that the unofficial recreation of the original "Metal Gear Solid" dubbed project Shadow Moses has been cancelled.
The group behind the project cited "reasons beyond our control" for cancelling the remake, according to Engadget. In the gaming community, the most prominent speculation involves Konami, the company that owns the rights for the "Metal Gear Solid" franchise. Despite no evidence links Konami to the cancellation of the Shadow Moses project, dedicated fans of the franchise speculate that the company may have something to do with the abrupt cancellation.
While the news came in as a shock for the gaming community, it was something that was not entirely unexpected. First of all, Konami owns the "Metal Gear Solid" IP and it is highly unlikely that they will allow third-party companies to fiddle with it. Secondly, the Shadow Moses project appears to be the workings of a single person, which is just too few for a project of such massive scale.
In the past, Hernandez released a handful of screenshots as well as teaser videos to update gamers about the remake's development status.
The primary goal of the "Metal Gear Solid" remake is to build the game using the Unreal Engine 4 game engine. Hernandez released some in-game footages highlighting the graphical power of the new engine applied to the game. The teaser videos were well received by fans of the franchise.
In the past, Hernandez expressed his intention to acquired permission from Konami to work in the "Metal Gear Solid" remake. Based on recent news, it would appear that he did not get the permission he was asking for.
While the Shadow Moses is official cancelled, there might be some glimmer of hope for dedicated fans of the franchise as the team behind it promises "some other news" that will be released in the near future, according to PC Gamer. Speculations claim that the group behind Shadow Moses might instead create a new game that incorporates some of the elements that made "Metal Gear Solid" famous.