Last week, the company posted a promotion video for its Montreal branch on YouTube. The video titled “A Day in the Life at Virtuous Montreal” was targeted at potential new hires and paid attention to the studio’s art team. The studio’s caption reads, “The life of an artist in the video game industry might be a little different than what you’d think! At Virtuos Montreal, we’ve built a friendly, diversified, and passionate team to deliver amazing AAA quality work. Join our artists as they take you through a typical day at the studio and explore what working in the studio specialized in art means for them.” At some point, the video featured concept artist Louis-Alex Boismenu, who contributed a few comments. However, a book titled “The Art of Solid Metal Gear” is visible in the background as Boismenu speaks. While this in itself suggests nothing, rumors have been swirling around for over a year that Konami has hired Virtuous to work on a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. These rumors were lent credence by the fact that a Virtuous lead software engineer listed an unannounced multiplatform action-adventure AAA game remake on his LinkedIn profile. When all of these events are taken together, it becomes apparent why fans believe Virtuous is working on a Metal Gear Solid project. Nevertheless, Virtuous’s involvement in a new Metal Gear Solid project is just speculation at the moment. As a result, the rumors should be taken with a grain of salt, unless the studio or Konami confirms it. However, the fact that Konami has recently been in the headlines for its new stance on licensing is enough to make fans believe that this speculation is correct. Presumably, the entertainment behemoth was not a fan of licensing its IP but that has all changed. The company recently revealed it had licensed out the development of some of its most popular properties to external developers. This includes the licensing of Silent Hill F to Neobard, the China-based studio behind Resident Evil Re: Verse, and Silent Hill Townfall to Annapurna Interactive and No Code Studios. Apart from the Silent Hill games, Konami has also licensed out the development of remasters of the first two Suikoden games. The first game in the Metal Gear Solid series was released in 1987 by Konami. The game was designed by legendary Japanese creator Hideo Kojima. As of December 2021, the franchise has sold over 58 million copies making it one of the most successful video game franchises in the world. Whether the news of a remake is true or not, it is only a matter of time before fans find out the truth. Metal Gear Solid is a much-loved video game franchise and we doubt Konami can keep work on the title under wraps for much longer.
