Within the past 24 hours, a rumor has come about that Konami will be looking to re-release a new version of Metal Gear Solid V later this year that would be called Metal Gear Solid 5: Demon Edition. The rumor states that the game would be set to release in December and there would be sweeping changes to the entirety of the experience. The only problem is, most of what is being said about this new version seems like a total lie.

For starters, the main source of this rumor stems from 4chan, which means right off the bat, you should already be suspect. If you're somehow unaware, 4chan's entire posting system is completely anonymous, meaning that anyone can post on the site without having an ID attached to them, therefore immediately eliminating credibility off the bat. Since then though, the rumor ended up making its way to other avenues like Reddit and Resetera, only amplifying its reach further.

The original post says that some journalists around the gaming industry have already played this new Demon Edition of MGSV (we haven't here at DualShockers) over this past week. The game is meant to be a sort of re-release that is meant to endear goodwill from fans after the backlash Konami received from Metal Gear Survive.

Here are some of the biggest points of what the rumor claims will come with this Demon Edition:

  • Full English redub (Japanese cast is mostly the same) with Big Boss being voiced by Richard Doyle, his MGS4 voice actor. Kiefer is, however, still in, voicing Ishmael and the Medic, with a handful of new lines (is in more of cameo role then anything) James Horan as Skullface, and Downes as Kaz are the only real returning actors.
  • Story has been completely changed, and has approximately three hours of completely new cutscenes, and quite a bit of the old ones have been extremely edited.
  • Ground Zeroes is fully integrated into the game, and serves as a prologue.
  • To make things clear, the game is intended to stomp out Kojima's vision of the series (despite the rendition being built on alot of unused concepts Hideo discarded).
  • Reflected in the title, which is Metal Gear Solid 5, instead of V.
  • PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Switch is getting a vanilla Phantom Pain port.

There are also a lot of finer details about the story changes that will be headed to this rumored version of Metal Gear Solid V as well. So is there any accuracy to what is being talked about here at all? Well, I certainly don't believe so.

As I stated upfront, since this entire rumor stems from 4chan, there's little reason to put stock in it to begin with. But I also have a hard time believing that Konami would overhaul this many changes to this title, especially given that they didn't even allow Hideo Kojima to properly finish it in the first place. Why reinvest resources to "fix" a game you clearly shipped early in the first place?

If this Metal Gear Solid 5: Demon Edition was somehow real though, I certainly wouldn't be one to buy it. All of the changes listed here fly completely in the face of Kojima's original vision of the title. Whether or not you liked some of the decisions that he made in MGSV (replacing David Hayter with Kiefer Sutherland, focusing more on gameplay than story, etc.) they were his to make as the head of the project. For Konami to then organize an entire team to return to that work and overhaul what had been created just feels downright wrong.

We'll obviously keep you posted on if this Metal Gear Solid 5: Demon Edition were to be proven to be real in the future, but I wouldn't place much stock in it. If it was to be real though, perhaps an announcement around Gamescom is when we would find out.

In the meantime, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it's awesome. Go play it.