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Metal Gear Solid V's Nuclear Ending Unlocks On PC And Konami Has No Idea Why
Over the weekend, Metal Gear Solid V's nuclear disarmament ending suddenly unlocked on PC, much to the bafflement of fans and Konami themselves.
The ending, which has existed since the game's release in 2015, was theoretically only supposed to appear when every player in the online Forward Operating Base multiplayer mode chose to go without nuclear weapons. It was datamined when the game originally came out, but it hasn't been achieved by natural means since then.
When the ending triggered for PC players on Friday, no one was quite sure what happened. Using the Metal Gear Solid Twitter account yesterday, Konami denied responsibility. "We are still investigating," the tweet reads, "but can confirm that the event was triggered while the nuke count hadn’t reached zero."
Many fans reported the same thing happening on Xbox One, fueling theories that this was either marketing by Konami for the upcoming Metal Gear Survive or the company's attempt to roll-back decisions made during the game's development, like a post-game patch that allowed certain characters to rejoin after leaving.
Another theory on the Metal Gear subreddit suggested that a Konami employee had accidentally hit a button to manually push the ending out, mirroring a scenario, albeit in reverse, from the accidental nuclear warning that took place in Hawaii several weeks ago.
Metal Gear Solid V is available on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It was the last Metal Gear game made by Hideo Kojima before his departure from Konami.
Our Take
There is something darkly fascinating about this and the idea that this ending, which was likely never to be seen naturally, was released in such a way that no one has any idea what caused it. Peace itself came about in complete confusion, which is honestly pretty thematically appropriate for the series.
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