Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater finally has a confirmed release date: August 28

Recent updates

Update, Feb 12: During Sony's State of Play livestream, Konami released a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta, confirming the leaked release date: August 28. You can watch the trailer above. Original story continues below.

The thing about Naked Snake is: he's right there when you least expect it. He's a shadow in a treeline. A rustling in a locker. A thick forearm crushing your windpipe. He's also, apparently, an unexpected surprise on Sony's PlayStation network—the console maker seems to have accidentally uploaded a release date trailer (spotted by users on ResetEra) for the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater right there on its digital storefront, with zero fanfare.

That's—hang on, let me do some maths—some time after its originally suggested release window of 2024, and a full year after I got to try out the game's Virtuous Mission section for myself at a hands-on demo last year, but these things take time, I suppose.

The trailer looks, well, quite a lot like if someone made Metal Gear Solid 3 in 2025. We get glimpses of all sorts of iconic scenes: The Boss and Snake engaging in some CQC, Ocelot chasing our hero down a The Fugitive-style tunnel, the Shagohod flipping out, an electric colonel, the bee man. You know, Metal Gear stuff.

What we also get, though, is a little post-credits teaser of a literal cheeky monkey smacking its rear and absconding into the jungle. It didn't tax my brain too much to figure out that this is almost certainly teasing the return of Snake vs Monkey, an Ape Escape mode tucked away in the original PS2 versions MGS3 that never made the leap to later releases. Which, hey, that's pretty cool. Part of me hopes that's why the game is coming out a year late, just because it's the funniest possible reason to delay your highly anticipated remake.

I have to be honest, the release of the MGS3 HD edition—and its subsequent bringing-up-to-snuff through patches—in the Master Collection Vol 1 means I don't really feel any need for a full-on remake of the best Metal Gear game, but I'll be curious to try it out when it arrives anyway. If my demo is any indication, I think the game will be exactly what the fans who are looking forward to it want: a zealously faithful remake that recreates the original practically shot-for-shot, with just a few modern accoutrements in its gameplay to make it palatable for new players.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

With contributions from

Wes FenlonSenior Editor